Nightprowlers Book 1: Neverender (rewrite)
by INFJwriter
Summary: Five kids are sent on a mission behind enemy lines by the evil secret agency they work for. Four have no memory of their past. One remembers it all. A rewrite of my fanfic, Nightprowlers Part 1: Neverender. It's a bit more detailed than the first. Updates will be irregular because life. T for language and other reasons.
1. Introduction

**(A/N) Well, here it is! The rewrite of** **my first fanfiction, _Nightprowlers Part 1:_** _ **Neverender!**_ **I hope it's better than the last one!** **It is (hopefully) much better at explaining characters' appearances. Updates will be irregular. Now I hope you enjoy!**

* * *

Introduction

Six men and six women waited at the conference table in the Black Dragon Agency's underground bunker, their eyes darting from one face to the next. There was an ominous feeling in the room that felt like a looming shadow over their heads. The decision they would make today would either lead to their organization's ultimate triumph - or its devastating demise.

Suddenly, the thick, soundproof door swung open, and everyone stood up as a towering man in a black suit entered. His gray eyes stared straight forward with a look of steel, his jaw was set, and his prominent chin was held high with confidence. He had thick black hair with some white hairs sticking out here and there. He was followed by another, much runtier assistant. Despite his size, the small man had a burning glare in his blue eyes behind his round glasses. He wore a dark grey suit and his snooty face gave off an arrogant vibe. The tall man was Vladomir Chovin, the Head of the Black Dragon Agency, and the shorter one was his assistant, Trenton Carson. No one dared to meet the steely gaze of their boss as he strode toward the table. After both men had sat down, the others around the room followed suit. There was a brief silence until at last the tall man spoke.

"I see we're all here. Good. I won't have to punish anyone." He paused. "The meeting is now in order. Agent Carson, your report."

His assistant stood up and cleared his throat. The papers in his hand shook slightly. "Thank you, Vladomir. We are here today on Tuesday, June twenty-first to discuss the controversial issue of sending Team Nightprowler into the field to carry out Phase One of Operation: XT3RM1N8. As you all know, Nightprowler is a nocturnal team in the Agency, doing only night missions, and is composed of our top five junior agents: Mark, the navigator, Gretta, the weapons expert, Ted, the technology expert and mechanic, Lex, the physicist and mathematician, and Drew, the combat specialist. Our main concern is, while they are carrying out the mission, they may come across something that will undo all progress we've made with them. Disscussion is now open." With that, Carson sat down.

"It's too risky," a woman with dark hair and a thick accent said sharply. "If something happens to them, we won't be able send reinforcements."

"Agent Overpecker is right," added the blonde-haired woman next to her. "We have to send a different team."

"But there's a huge problem with that, Agent Klark," a man in a white coat with thick glasses pointed out, shaking his head. "Drew, the combat specialist, knows all about the Ninja, our targets. He is the key to our success with this mission."

The man across from him wearing a blue suit and tie snorted. "You mean, he's the key to our _failure_ with this mission. Dawson, do you know _anything_ about the kid? I was one of his teachers at the Black Dragon Training Academy. Outstanding fighter, but a _terrible_ agent. He was a total rebel, always playing pranks on us faculty. He turned the school into a minefield of tricks and pranks. You couldn't walk down the hallway without setting off a firework or stepping on a hidden button that triggered a stink bomb. If you think sending _him_ on such an important mission is a good idea, we're as good as goners. I say we should leave Drew out."

"What choice do we have, Gildman?" the man in glasses shot back. "Can you think of a team that could do better? Nightprowler is our only all-minor team! It's the only team that could possibly work in the context of the mission! Yes, the stakes are high! But do we have any other option? No!" There were some nods as Dawson finished, but some glares as well.

"Ladies and gentlemen," Vladomir growled, recognizing the rising tension around the table. "Let's keep this civilized. We don't need last month's _accident_ to happen again."

No one spoke for a while. Carson stood up again. "I assume we have all come to a conclusion? I see some nodding. Good. Everyone, write your vote on the slips of paper in front of you, fold them up, and cast them into the middle of the table." There was silence as the twelve agents did as Carson had told them. When all the slips of paper were gathered in the center of the table, Carson collected them and handed them to Vladomir to count. After a minute that seemed like an hour, Vladomir stood up.

"With a majority vote of seven to five, Team Nightprowler _will_ carry out Phase One of Operation: XT3RM1N8. The meeting is in conclusion." With the decision having been announced, everyone except for Vladomir and Carson stood up and filed out of the bunker, some shooting glares at each other. Once the door had been safely closed behind them, Carson turned to Vladomir with a snarl.

"This will end badly," he growled. "We are sending the most dangerous team in the agency into the most dangerous place for _any_ team to be, let alone Nightprowler! Gretta has a better aim than anyone in the agency!"

"So?" Vladomir asked his assistant. "Even she can be subdued if she somehow turns."

Carson, however, was not a man to admit defeat, so he kept arguing. "Ted has enough computer knowledge to hack into the most secure networks and systems in Ninjago!"

"Ted's got plenty of sense in him. He's the _last_ person, except, perhaps, for Mark, who would even _consider_ rebelling against us."

"Mark _is_ loyal to us, yes, but but if his loyalties change, he's got the will and strategic knowledge to take us down in one move! Drew-"

"Drew knows what will happen if he tries anything," Vladomir interrupted, staring at the table, obviously starting to get annoyed with Carson's complaints. "We have him under control."

"But what about Lex?" Carson fought back. "I know he seems like a dud on the outside, but I have heard rumors saying that he may have the most brilliant mathematical mind in history! Vladomir, _think!_ If sending Team Nightprowler to carry out phase one won't be our downfall, he will be! If he figures out-"

"Lex has Selective Mutism. Even if he figures out the entirety of Operation: XT3RM1N8, he won't be telling anyone, except maybe Drew. He's the only person he'll talk to."

"But if Drew tells-"

" _Again,_ Drew has been warned about what will happen if he says _anything_ to _anyone_." Vladomir's volume was beginning to rise."I am finished with this conversation, Carson. Everything is under control. _You are_ _dismissed."_ Carson opened his mouth as if about to retort, then closed it, swallowed, and exited, closing the door behind him.

Vladomir sat in the now silent room, satisfied with the decision. All appeared to be going smoothly so far. Of course, there was still a long way to go before Operation: XT3RM1N8 was completed. But he was quite confident now that everything would work out.

But there was still one more matter to take care of.

The door opened again, this time revealing a new, more mysterious figure. His entire body was concealed in a large, brown trench coat, and his face was hidden in the shadow of a black fedora. Tucked into the hat band was a silver card with the letter "i" on it. His tall, skinny shape cast a long shadow on the wall. His hands were tucked into his pockets as he walked toward the table and sat down in the chair on the opposite side of the table from Vladomir.

After a moment, Vladomir tossed a stack of bills across the table at the mysterious figure, who counted the money carefully. He then spoke in a smooth, tenor voice.

"Well, that looks about right. Now, what exactly would you like me to do?"

"Whatever it takes," Vladomir answered. "Just make sure the odds are in our favor in the end."

"Whatever it takes?" The figure let out a cold laugh. "You do know how dangerous it is to tell a double agent to do 'whatever it takes' to get his job done, don't you? It could cost the lives of some of your own agents as well as lives of your enemies. It could cost the lives of some of your generals. Heck, it could cost you your _own_ life!"

"Agent i, you know as well as I do that fooling the Ninja will be a hard job indeed."

"Of course I know that!" Agent i snapped.

"Then you'll know that you'll have to be a lot more cautious than that." When Agent i looked like he was about to retort, Vladomir held up his hand. "But of course, I know that you'll be cautious. I trust you, i. Don't lose that trust."

Agent i laughed. "You know me too well to think that I'd do anything to lose your trust. Don't worry. The Ninja won't suspect a thing."

* * *

 **(A/N) So how was that? If you read my first version of Neverender, it's not as descriptive and it's definitely not as long as this one is. It left you all in the dark about whether or not it even takes place in Ninjago or not, and didn't even say the word 'ninja' until the end of the second chapter. So that was really bad. Also, I did a terrible job of describing my characters within the story, so that was bad. But, you know how it is with first fics. Overall, it really wasn't that bad. It just was lacking a few things.**

 **Anyway, review! And be sure to check out my poll!**


	2. Chapter 1: Nightprowlers

**(A/N) Here's the next chapter. In the original Part 1, it was called The Heist, but I decided to change it. Like the last chapter, this one has been expanded to be more descriptive.**

* * *

Chapter 1

Nightprowlers

The air became cold and unwelcoming as the sun slipped below the horizon. The wind picked up, turning the peaceful grassy field into a wild sea. Dark clouds began to blanket the night sky. A rumble, then a flash, and the storm began. Rain poured down from the sky, and lightning lit up the night, revealing a small boy in a black raincoat fighting his way through the fury. He was clutching a briefcase to his chest like his life depended on it.

The sky growled and lit up again, and the dark shape of a tower appeared. The figure sped up. As he drew closer, the structure became clearer. He stopped in front of it to admire the fantastic building. It had a futuristic look to it, with a long, thin neck leading up to a huge, disk-shaped top floor. A spire on the roof stretched to the heavens. This was the power station. Here, they converted lightning to electrical power for all of Ninjago. Shame, the figure thought. Such a spectacular system deserved better than to be hacked.

He ran toward the door and pushed it open. When he had closed it behind him, he surveyed his surroundings. He was in a small, circular, dimly lit room, but it was just light enough that he could make out an elevator and plenty of cardboard boxes. He knew there would be guards at the top of the tower, so he'd have to take care of that before he did anything else. He set down his briefcase and began to hunt around the space for any walkie-talkies. When he found one (in a cardboard box labeled "tape recorders", for some reason), he pressed the button and, covering his mouth with his sleeve so as to mask his voice, said, "Emergency! There's an out-of-control fire in the base of the tower. Evacuate using alternate exit!" Then he waited, holding his breath. _That had better work,_ he thought nervously.

Then a voice began to crackle through on the other end. _"Copy that. I'll open up the alternate exit."_

"I'm already out. Radio me as soon as the tower is clear."

 _"Roger that. See you outside."_ There was a crackle, then silence. The traveler took off the coat. He wasn't that tall, only about four feet, and he was quite lean. He was covered in all-black, tight-fitting clothes from head to toe, including a jacket with a little red dragon emblem on the chest. He rustled his short, reddish-brown hair dry (it was soaked from the rain) and wiped his thick, rectangular glasses on his shirt. His name was Ted, but his friend Drew called him Tech because he was a computer genius. He was twelve, but he could have taught a college Computer Science class if he wanted to. Unfortunately, Ted and his team couldn't have normal roles in society, because they and the people they worked for were wanted by just about every law enforcement establishment in Ninjago.

Ted sat down with the walkie-talkie and absentmindedly began to turn it over in his hands. He ran over phase one of the mission in his head. He would hack the powerstation's system and gain control of the security network. Then he would contact the rest of his group, and the real heist would begin.

Suddenly the walkie-talkie crackled on again. _"The premises is cleared, repeat, the premises is cleared."_

"Good work," Ted answered. He waited to see if his "friend" would say anything else, but nothing more came. With that, Ted turned the device over, removed the batteries, and tossed it into a random box. It's not like they were _using_ it, anyway. Now he could move forward. He picked up the briefcase, pressed the up button for the elevator, and stepped in. After what seemed like eternity, the doors opened, and he was in the control room.

Ted looked around. He admired the beauty of the room. It was completely round, filled with devices and technology that were just begging to be played with. In the center was a huge, cylindrical glass case that enclosed a glowing mass of blue electricity. It was obvious his plan had worked beautifully, because the room showed all signs of immediate evacuation. Computers were still running, screens were still on, security cameras were still rolling. He plopped himself down in the chair at the main computer and opened his briefcase. Inside was a laptop, a number of computer cords, a flashdrive, a headset, and a candy bar. He took out the cords and used them to plug the laptop into the computer. Then he drew a stool toward him and put his laptop on it. Taking the flashdrive, he inserted it into the main computer.

Immediately, the giant screen (up until now showing the status of the power station's systems) turned blue. Words began appearing, line by line, on the screen.

Error. Press any key to restart.

Restart failed. Scanning for source of problem.

No source found. Searching for cleaner.

Cleaner found. Shut down for cleaning?

Ted smiled. That was no cleaner the computer had found. It was the hack that had been downloaded onto the computer from the flashdrive. He pressed the enter key on the giant keyboard. The screen went black, then came on again. It showed a red screen with a symbol in the center: a black dragon curled into a spiral, holding in its claws a sword and a scepter. It was the symbol of the Black Dragons, the criminal agency Ted and his team worked for. The dragon sign symbolized their mission perfectly: to establish their rule over Ninjago - using whatever means necessary to do so. Ted pressed a few keys, and a map of Ninjago City appeared. He put on the headset, took a bite of delicious chocolate and nuts from the candy bar, and spoke into the mic. "Hacker to Rebel, do you copy?"

A teen boy's voice answered. _"Yeah, I copy. Jeez, Tech, what took you so long? Do you have any idea how awful it is hiding in this garbage can for two hours?!"_ Ted rolled his eyes, both annoyed and amused.

"I'm sure it was unpleasant," he said. Drew was a good friend, but he was very complicated: you could always count on the fifteen-year-old to laugh at a joke, and he was for the most part nice and sociable to his friends, but he hated the agency, and had never explained why. Drew wasn't quick to trust others, and always seemed to know something that he wouldn't tell his friends. Personal matters were never mentioned in conversation with him. "Stand by while I check in with the others."

 _"Fine, but I'm not standing by in this thing."_ There was a crashing sound.

"Dude, don't wake up the whole city," Ted joked, snorting with his mouth still full of chocolate.

 _"Shut up,"_ Drew shot back, but Ted could hear him chuckling too. _"Hey, are you eating something?"_

"Maybe. Seriously, though, make sure you haven't drawn any attention. Hacker out." He pressed a few keys, and spoke into the mic again. "Hacker to Weapons, do you copy?"

This time, a sassy girl's voice answered. _"I copy. You can't see anything in this fog! It's awful!"_

"Can you move to your next position?"

 _"I can't see two feet in front of me! What do you think?"_

Ted sighed. Gretta was his least favorite on the team. The sixteen-year-old girl was absolutely nasty. He had to admit, though, she was good with any weapon you handed her. She had an eagle's eye and was a perfect shot, giving her a huge advantage over enemies. Anybody who knew her knew she was not a person you wanted to mess with.

"Use your atmospheric deconcentrating goggles. Those will help."

 _"They'd better."_

"They will," Ted told her firmly. "And remember, you can't boss me around this time. I'm the one who's in charge of this mission. Weapons aren't going to help us break into Borg Tower. It's not how that place works."

 _"I know that, dweeb. I read the mission descript-"_

Ted cut her off by switching lines again. This time, he called out two codenames. "Hacker to Drill and Numbers, do you copy?"

 _"Sure do. Dang, it's foggy out here!"_ It was Mark answering. Ted smirked. He could tell from the way that his friend had pronounced "dang" (slowly with strange intonation) that Mark was about to say something else, probably some curse word or something.

"Guess who already told me that?"

 _"Gretta."_

"Bingo."

 _"That girl has issues. Though you have to admit, she isn't afraid to take drastic measures to get a job done."_ Mark was a strong advocate of duty and following all orders, no matter what the circumstances. It made him a good agent, but sometimes it would go too far; he'd end up following a cause blindly.

"Do you have Lex with you?"

 _"Yeah, and miraculously, he hasn't started drawing on a wall yet,"_ Mark answered. Lex was a distant boy of eight, always deep in thought or writing mathematical equations on the walls. But the strangest behavior that he exhibited was his silence. Even after seven years of knowing the odd little boy, Ted had never heard Lex say a single word.

"Okay, switching to multi-line mode," Ted announced. He pressed a button, and the laptop showed a map of the capital city, downloaded from the computer. Four dots flashing on the screen each represented a member of Ted's team. Ted took a bite out of the candy bar. "All agents may proceed."

* * *

On the south side of Ninjago City, a teenage boy crawled out of a fallen trash can, not looking altogether too thrilled to be there. Drew brushed off his Black Dragon uniform and picked some pieces of garbage out of his brick-red hair that he liked to keep messy. It wasn't apparent at the moment because of the dirt on his face, but he was actually quite a handsome boy. A lot of girls back at the Black Dragon Academy often talked of him being "dreamy", but he wasn't one to date. He liked to keep to himself, not usually sharing his feelings with anyone but his close friends and _definitely_ not telling others his secrets. He also hated to be touched, for trust reasons. Drew found it _very_ hard to trust people, and to earn his trust was a long and arduous process. And one thing he had sworn a long time ago to never, ever, _ever_ trust was the Black Dragon Agency. Drew slipped through the shadows, brooding silently.

 _I hate this job,_ he thought bitterly.

He hated his job, he hated his bosses, he hated the agency, and he hated its goal. Conquering the world was not a cause he wanted to work for. He'd run away if he could. The problem was that if they caught you sneaking away, you'd be shot. The Black Dragons were not forgiving.

 _"Hacking the city's security grid,"_ came Ted's voice through Drew's earpiece. _"Hold on, Drew, I think something's coming your way!"_

"Can you tell what it is?" Drew whispered. Had his trash can woken something up?

 _"It looks like a bird of some sort. It doesn't look dangerous. Never mind, no need to worry."_

But Drew leapt into an ally anyway. He quickly put on his nightgoggles, and searched the skies. At first, he saw nothing. Then-

 _There._

Perched on a window ledge was a silver falcon, its piercing gaze focused right on him. He knew this bird. And like thunder always comes after lightning, something else always came after the appearance of this falcon. Drew pressed a button on his earpiece. "Drew here. You'll all need to carry on the mission without me. Enemies are not far away from me."

 _"Enemies?!"_ Ted blurted. _"We just started the mission!"_

"Trust me. These guys are that quick," Drew told his friend. "Just get on with the mission! The ninja are trying to prevent our success! I'm going to stall them." It wasn't the mission he was worried about. It was the safety of his friends.

 _"...Okay...if you say so. Alright, everyone, change of plans. We've got unfriendlies on the south side..."_ Drew turned the volume down on his earpiece so he could focus better. The falcon had left. That meant they were close. Very close. He waited in the shadows, ready for them to spring out of nowhere.

There was a shout, and they were there. Seven of them, all wearing colored gis and bearing weapons that could easily knock Drew out. Fortunately, he had learned all their moves in his training. He pulled his mask up over his nose and mouth, so as to keep himself more unrecognizable. "Wow, guys," he snarked as the ninjas surrounded him. "Your outfits are so colorful. I can't help but wonder why your enemies never see you in those bright costumes of yours. You say you travel in shadows, but how _do_ you stay hidden?" The insult did the trick. All seven ninjas ran at him at once. He waited until they were almost upon him, then leapt up and caught the lowest rung of a ladder on the side of a brick building. He watched as they rammed into eachother. Clearly, these were just students that were probably sent on a late night mission. They'd never fall for that trick if they'd been fully trained. Drew shook his head; this would be easier than he'd thought.

* * *

Downtown, two boys waited in the shadows. The first was tall and muscular, and had a slight tan on his fair skin. He swept raven bangs out of his green eyes, even though he knew it would slip right back down. He just couldn't seem to tame them, no matter what he tried. He took out some atmospheric deconcentration goggles to try to see through the fog.

While the first searched through the night for any signs of activity, the other, much smaller boy seemed to be completely unaware of the situation. He was arranging small rocks he had collected on the sidewalk into neat little piles, some smaller than others, and sometimes swapping one rock in one pile for a different one in another. His pale little hands skimmed the piles, counting the rocks, while his wide hazel eyes scrutinized his work. As he worked, a faint breeze rustled his windswept light blonde hair.

"Lex, focus!" Mark hissed to his young comrade. Just then Drew's voice crackled into the earpieces.

 _"Drew here. You'll all need to carry on the mission without me. Enemies are not far away from me."_

The rest of the conversation was lost to Mark as he let out a long groan. Every mission, Drew would end up doing something really stupid, like rushing through a hallway and realizing too late that it was full of security lasers, or opening a door out of curiosity and finding a room full of police, or even _trying to take on a bunch of enemies on his own!_

"Ted, are you sure we shouldn't call him back and tell him he needs to _get the hell back here RIGHT NOW?"_

 _"Don't worry. Drew's told me before that he knows the ninja like the back of his hand. He's never told me how, but I trust him,"_ Ted assured him.

Mark wasn't so sure. He'd always suspected that there was something up with Drew. Like he knew something that he wasn't telling them. Sometimes, it even seemed like he thought he'd said too much in a conversation. One instance was on one of their missions a while ago. Mark had used a sleeping smoke bomb, a measure Drew called "unfair". That was when Drew had said something very strange.

 _"You didn't always fight like that. I remember-"_ Then Drew had stopped.

 _"You remember what?"_ Mark had shot back.

 _"...Never mind."_

Mark never found out what that meant. After Mark told his boss about it, Drew wasn't seen for three days. When his team finally saw him limping down a hallway back at the Black Dragon Headquarters, they ran over, asking him where he'd been. Drew didn't answer anyone. He just rubbed his back as if it were in pain and stared at Mark with a raging fire in his amber eyes. Mark would never forget that look.

 _"Alright, Mark, you and Lex can go ahead and move forward."_

"Roger that," Mark answered, and he tapped Lex on the shoulder. "Time to move," he whispered. Lex stood up, and followed Mark as he led the way down the street. Suddenly, the dark shape of Borg Tower loomed into view. One hundred floors high, the place was an architectural giant. Mark pressed the button on his ear piece. "I have the tower in my sights. Now what? I see at least forty guards."

 _"Do you see Gretta on the other side of the street?"_

Mark squinted into the fog with his goggles. "No, I - wait, I think I do!" A figure was waving in the darkness. It was unmistakably Gretta; she had the short, dark brown hair with the pink streak in her bangs, the dark-ish skin color, and her one-of-a-kind gun in her hand. Mark waved back.

 _"Good. Gretta, use the fog as concealment. Blast something down the street to draw the guards away from the entrance to the tower."_

Gretta's voice crackled through the earpiece. _"Ooh, goody! What should I aim at?"_

 _"Anything."_

There was a deafening blast on the next block, and a shop exploded. It worked like a charm. Immediately, almost all the guards ran towards the commotion. Only two remained. Mark saw Gretta racing across the street towards them. The fog was so thick that the guards didn't know what had hit them; the agent had knocked them out before they could even see her. Mark turned to Lex. "Your turn," he said. Lex rushed from his rocks over to the keypad that would unlock the doors, and with only a quick glance at it, typed in the code, and they were in.

The first thing they saw were the security nindroids.

Every one of them turned its beady red eye to the intruders. They looked ready to fire on them with their laser blasts any second. Mark let out a dirty word. "We'll never get out of this mess!" he moaned. "Ted, how did you not see this on the security cameras?!"

 _"I forgot that this was one of the things Drew was supposed to take care of!"_

"Well, now that he can't take care of it, who's going to-"

"What makes you think I can't take care of it?" Mark, Gretta and Lex all looked up to see Drew standing in a window frame, holding a remote control. A press of a button, and all the nindroids fell to the ground. He hopped down. "An invisible radiation field trap. Harmless to humans, but it fries the circuits of robots."

"Wait, how did you get here?" Mark asked suspiciously. "I thought you were-"

"Turns out the guys I faced were a bunch of ametures," Drew answered with a shrug. "C'mon, let's get this over with."

Just then they could hear shouts outside. "Sounds like our friends have come back to play," Gretta remarked sarcastically. The team raced to the stairs, and began the climb to the ninety-sixth floor.

* * *

Ted was frantic. All three lines had gone dead. There was nothing but static. The last time he'd heard from his teammates, three had been facing a hundred nindroids, and one had been fighting seven ninja alone.

"Can anyone hear me?!" he shouted into his microphone. _Please don't let them be dead,_ he prayed. He had no idea what had happened. One minute, he'd been on the giant computer, watching his team through the security cameras in Borg Tower, the next, he was staring at a screen full of static. He'd checked the communication lines. Dead too.

Ted was miles away in a power station in the middle of a stormy field. His friends could be dead, and there was nothing he could do about it.

* * *

"I'm not getting anything."

Gretta only heard static in her ear. She'd been trying to contact Ted, but he hadn't answered. Mark and Drew had had no greater success. And Lex was once again being unhelpful and drawing on the walls. This was so frustrating, she wanted to shoot something.

"Let's not get carried away by worrying about this." Gretta could tell Mark was trying to keep his voice level. "We have to keep moving. Gretta, you've got the best memory. Do you remember what we need to do next?"

Gretta replied in a mocking voice. "Sure. We just need to hack into the computer. Of course, you can't ask me how to do it since _I'm not the computer geek!"_

"But you are a mechanic! You know how stuff works!" Drew suddenly blurted. Immediately he looked like he'd thought he'd said something he shouldn't have. Gretta raised an eyebrow.

"Since when have I been a mechanic?" she asked, thoroughly puzzled. She was a weapons expert, and always had been. "If you want someone who knows how stuff works, ask Mr. Physics over there." She jerked her head in Lex's direction.

Drew crossed his arms and scowled at her. "He won't answer any questions."

Gretta's smirk faded. "It was a joke, Red Head."

"Not a funny one." Drew shot back. He always defended Lex. For some reason, he seemed to think he was responsible for the little weirdo.

"Guys, _stop,"_ Mark demanded. "We don't have much time. We need to-" Suddenly there was a crackling from the earpieces.

 _"-hear me?! I repeat, CAN YOU HEAR ME?!"_

"Ted!" all three shouted at once.

 _"PRAISE THE LORD! I've been trying to reach you; what happened?!"_

"Drew here used some zapping thing to take out the nindroids, and in the process it also took out all the other devices around it, including the earpieces," Gretta stated, glaring at the little rebel. Drew made a face at her.

 _"Wait, how did Drew get from- oh, never mind that question, how did you guys get the line back on?"_

"Uh, good question. How did we get it back on?"

Suddenly there was a clang behind them, and they turned around to see Lex closing the little door to an electric box. They stared as he simply walked back over to the wall and started scribbling on it again.

"Oookaaay," Gretta said slowly.

 _"What?"_ Ted asked, probably thinking they were talking to him.

"...Nothing," Drew stated after a moment. "Just tell us what's next. We're already on floor 96."

 _"Good. Find the main computer."_

The main computer wasn't hard to find. It was huge, about the size of a billboard. "Now what?" Gretta asked.

 _"Now open up the confidential files. I can do the rest."_ Mark found the folder labeled TOP SECRET and clicked on it. Only a second had passed before the screen flashed red and in all caps read SECURITY BREACH. Alarms wailed throughout the building.

Mark swore. "Ted, what did I do?!" he demanded.

 _"You didn't do that; I did,"_ Ted explained calmly. _"When you opened the file, it became vulnerable. I hacked it, and that's what made the alarm go off. Mission accomplished. What are you waiting for? Get out of there!"_

"FREEZE!"

Mark, Gretta, Lex, and Drew all turned around to see the guards from outside pointing guns at them. "How'd they catch up so quickly?" Drew yelped.

"I can't believe the break-in was caused by a bunch of kids!" one of them scoffed to his friends. "Where are your parents? You're in a lot of trouble!"

"Not if we can help it!" Mark shouted. "Gretta, get us out of here!"

Gretta smiled. "Finally, I get to relieve this _killer_ itch in my trigger finger!" She swung her tiny, tazer-sized gun over her shoulder.

Gretta's Black Dragon uniform served two purposes. It was not only fashionable, but it also had a built in mechanism that would quickly change the parts and mechanics of her gun, making it possible for her to carry only one weapon and efficiently change its function in seconds. The gun clicked into place inside the construction chamber on her back, and five seconds later it emitted a beep that indicated it was ready. Gretta pulled the weapon out, now five times as long, loaded with toxic liquid ammunition, sporting flashing lights and three barrels, the insides of which began to glow hot pink. She pointed it at the guards. They all backed away. She was about to pull the trigger when Drew grabbed her arm. He had a burning glare in his eyes.

"Not necessary. Just get us out," he said warningly. Gretta made an ugly face at him, but still changed her target from the guards to the wall on the left. The gun hummed louder and louder until finally...

 _BLAM!_

Broken glass and computer parts flew through the air, leaving the guards ducking for cover. The blast from the gun had blown a massive hole in the glass wall, melting it with its corrosive chemical solution. The team ran towards their escape route, and took out their grappling guns. They fired them at the roof of the tower, and when it caught the ledge, they jumped out. When they reached the concrete, Drew pressed the button on his earpiece. "Alright, Ted," he said. "Tell headquarters that our stupid mission is accomplished."

* * *

 **(A/N) So how was that? I expanded the chapter to include more description of characters and tweaked minor details.**

 **By the way, I do this thing at the end of each chapter where I give shoutouts to people who comment, PM message, favorite, and/or follow me. If you're not on the list, it just means I either haven't seen your name yet, you were already mentioned in my last fic, or you were a bit late and didn't make it into the post. The first shoutout for this fic so far goes to lovesgod12!**

 **Also, be sure to vote on my poll because right now I have a tie between five of my eight choices, and I need a top four. Be sure to pick a total of** **four** **choices! There have been two voters so far, and one of them only voted for one thing, and it was a different one than the other four. So now I have a tie between five. DX I'm also still accepting OC requests for Part 2.**

 **I should go now because I have homework to do.**

 **Review please!**


	3. Chapter 2: New Mission

**(A/N) Hello! It's time for the agents to return to Headquarters! We'll learn more about the agency here, and get a few hints of what's to come. I know this seems like a lot before you even see the canon characters and there's a lot of OCs, but trust me, next chapter we will meet the Ninjas. Just don't skip this chapter because it has some really important hints and character descriptions.**

* * *

Chapter 2

New Mission

Black Dragon Island was tiny, only a few miles across, and the surrounding islands were even smaller. It was very tropical; the entire island was a jungle. The area was shrouded in mist, and the seas were always choppy. If a ship managed to pass through safely, the crew would immediately be taken to the island's prison, and the ship would be destroyed. To avoid mistaking an agent's craft for an enemy ship, agents traveled there only by special Black Dragon submarines, specially crafted to look like the heads of dragons. As Team Nightprowler's pod broke the surface, Drew's brow furrowed.

He hated the island as much as he hated the people who lived there - and what they worked for. The headquarters of the Black Dragons was here, along with a prison for captives, a laboratory for the making and testing of various machines and weapons, and the Training Academy. The people who ran the island were escaped prisoners, mentally ill criminals, former military officers, mad scientists; anyone the Black Dragons could find that was willing to do whatever it takes to get what they want.

 _And,_ Drew thought, scowling, _a bunch of innocent kids..._

When the submarine reached the dock, Mark opened the hatch, and the team climbed out, Drew holding the stupid flashdrive with the stolen files on it. They could see the upper floors of the large black headquarters building peeking out of the treetops. Although it could only be seen from a bird's-eye-view of the island, the building was actually shaped like the Black Dragon symbol. Satellites, however, couldn't get a glimpse of the island at all because of the signal-scrambling field that surrounded the island. All they would see if they zoomed in was more ocean.

A guard was waiting for them on the dock. Drew narrowed his eyes at the large, muscular man in the all-black uniform. "You've been ordered to go to the Boss's office," the guard growled, pointing at Drew. "The rest of you: drop off the package at the Technology Desk and report to the Missions Assignment Department." Then he marched off toward the South side of the harbor.

Mark whirled on Drew, looking furious. "What did you do _this_ time?" he demanded through his teeth.

"Nothing," Drew insisted.

"So the Boss just wants you for no apparent reason?"

"It wouldn't be the first time."

Drew was always being called into his boss's office, sometimes because he pulled another smart-alecky stunt of some kind, and sometimes just because his boss wanted someone to yell at. Mark huffed. "Well, get going," he barked, and Drew tossed the flashdrive to Ted and strode toward the road that led to the Black Dragon Headquarters.

* * *

Vladomir Chovin enjoyed being feared. It made him feel powerful, and it was fitting that he was the leader of the Black Dragons, for, in his opinion, no one could be better at it than he. However, there was one person who didn't respect him. That person was a certain fifteen-year-old boy named Drew.

Vladomir was sitting in the ornate chair at his desk in his office, drumming his fingers, waiting for the moment when the little rebel would walk through the mahogany double doors. He stared up at the ceiling of the circular room, admiring the detailed crest of the Black Dragons that had been expertly painted above. It was the perfect symbol for their organization: powerful, and deadly.

Just then, the doors swung open, and Vladomir's attention snapped in an instant from what was above him to what was in front of him. His fists clenched as the boy he hated so much entered.

" _Vladomir._ You called for me?" Drew's words dripped with disrespect.

"You know you're not supposed to call me that, young man. I am _'sir'_ to you." Vladomir growled.

"Okay then, _sir._ "

"Watch your tongue-"

"Why?" Drew shot. "Threats on _my_ life don't scare me, and you know that."

"You hide your fear well, young man. "

"I'll take that as a compliment!"

Vladomir shot murderous glares at the boy. He could have killed Drew if he wasn't such an important asset to his team.

"So what do you want to yell at me for this time?" Drew asked casually as he sat down in the chair on the opposite side of the desk in that despicable bored fashion of his. Vladomir struggled to keep his temper in check.

"I want to give you a warning," he answered, standing up. He began to circle the round office. "Your next mission will require you to get rid of your carelessness and apathy. You are a Black Dragon. You need to start acting like one."

Drew snorted. "I've heard that before."

Vladomir tried to ignore him. "The Committee of Generals considered leaving you out of this mission, but it seems you are the only one who knows enough about the location to make this mission a success."

Drew turned in his seat toward Vladomir and raised one eyebrow. "Now _that's_ new," he remarked, quite surprised. He'd never been told that he was actually _useful_. He narrowed his eyes. "What do you mean, 'I'm the only one who knows enough'? Where are you sending us? Why would you leave me out?"

Vladomir finished his circle around the room and sat down again. "Because," he said quietly, leaning over the desk, "where you are going next will tempt you to break your silence."

The boy froze. It was clear from his expression that although Drew didn't know what Vladomir had in store for him, he still had a feeling that whatever this place was, he would be under immense pressure, and Vladomir thought he saw a flicker of something in those amber eyes... was it... _fear?_ "Where are you sending us?" the boy asked in a voice that almost shook.

Vladomir smiled triumphantly at his success at finally getting a reaction out of this seemingly fearless child. "You'll find out soon enough," he replied vaguely, moving over to the window and looking out at the sea. "Just remember what I told you seven years ago about what you can and can't say. You may leave." A few seconds later, he heard the doors swing shut behind him.

Vladomir hated Drew. Soon he would have to teach the little rebel where his place was. But not now. Not when Vladomir had... _other_ plans to attend to involving a certain double agent...

Vladomir took out his cell phone and dialed a certain number. "Hello?" said a voice on the other end.

"Agent i," Vladomir began. "Keep an eye on Drew. If he says _anything,_ contact me _immediately._ And don't be spotted."

The only answer was a dark chuckle before the agent hung up. Vladomir shivered as he put away his phone. He may seem fearless to most people, but there was one thing that did scare him. Or rather, one _person._

That person was an agent who always insisted on being called "i".

* * *

"That was quicker than usual." Ted's eyebrows were raised high as he spotted Drew approaching the rest of the team. "We just left the Mission Center _two minutes_ ago. What did he want?"

"Don't worry about it," Drew muttered. "Where are we going next?"

Ted squinted through his glasses at his friend. It wasn't like Drew to not tell them all about what Vladomir had yelled at him about. If there was one thing Drew didn't keep secrets about, it was their boss's rants. He usually liked to make jokes about it, but this time, Drew was keeping silent. Ted decided not to push him. It wouldn't do any good.

"Well, we're not quite sure," Ted admitted slowly. "We've never seen it before. Do you recognize it?" He held out a picture for Drew to look at. One glance at the building depicted in it and Drew snatched the photo from his friend's hand. As he stared at it, his expression changed from recognition to shock, and after that, to deep concern. Ted wondered why.

The building in the picture was a tall monastery, settled in a cozy little forested valley next to a waterfall that cascaded off of a cliff. Ted hadn't recognized it, but Drew seemed to. But how could that be possible? Drew hadn't gone anywhere that the agency hadn't told him to.

Right?

"Drew, are you okay?" Ted asked. "You look pale."

Drew just continued to stare at the picture. Then he sighed. "I know exactly where we're going," he told them.

* * *

Mark had always hated the city. Too much noise, too much gasoline smell, too many neon signs, and _way_ too many people. He hated crowds. When he was surrounded by lots of people, he felt like the closeness would suffocate him. He liked sticking to a small group, like his team, though sometimes he thought that even the five of them was too many.

Thankfully though, it was one in the morning in the seaside city their submarine had taken them to, so no citizens were out. Even so, as he followed Drew through the dark alleyways, Mark kept his senses alert for any sign of unwanted passersby. He had unusually keen senses of hearing and smell, and had a knack for directions. That was why he always led the team on missions in areas that required good navigation skills, like forests and caves. He almost never got lost.

"Drew, do you have everything in the bag?" he whispered. "We don't want to get too far out of the city without something we need. Remember, once we get to our location, there's no going back until the mission is accomplished."

"Dude, I triple-checked everything!" Drew answered irritably. "We have all our gear, disguises, technology, and snacks."

"And instructions?"

 _"Yes!_ Stop nagging!"

Mark shook his head. Drew hated being pestered with constant progress checks. He preferred to work at his own pace, which didn't always work out for him as an agent. They worked on a limited amount of time, and Mark didn't have patience for slackers. He was so militaristic, with his strategic thought process and high expectations, that Drew had given him the nickname "Major Mark".

"It fits you even better than 'Bloodhound' does," he had laughed at the time.

Mark knew his teammate meant no harm, but Drew needed to start taking things more seriously. He was fifteen now, too old for such childish behavior. _But,_ he reminded himself, _he's not entirely at fault._

All five members of their team were adopted at young ages. Mark himself remembered little of his family, only a few faces and some piano songs. But that was all he knew about his life before he became a Black Dragon agent. That was a bit strange, because he'd been told he was adopted and taken to the island at age two, and he remembered beginning training at age ten, but he remembered nothing of the years in between being a toddler and being a trainee. But Mark never questioned what he was told. He knew that questioning orders was the quickest way to a superior's bad side.

That mindset was what got him through his education so quickly, emerging as a well-respected young agent. Mark had been a great student at the training academy. His inborn sense of discipline fit the system perfectly, and he quickly moved up the ranks. After his graduation, there was no question of who the Committee of Generals would appoint to be the leader of Team Nightprowler. It seemed that he was _born_ to be an agent.

But the other four... _weren't._

Sure, they went out of the academy as satisfactory agents, but they had problems. Taught by dangerous criminals, and unequipped with the same qualities that made up a good agent like Mark, they hadn't learned some of the social skills that even Black Dragon agents needed.

Gretta, with her lack of patience and wild mood swings, developed the unpredictability and deadliness of a psycopath. It made her the perfect weapons expert, but _not_ the perfect teammate. She sometimes had "episodes" when someone made her mad, causing her to lash out at them. And there was nothing anyone could do to stop her. Once she was past the point of no return, there was only one thing that her teammates could do: watch the disaster unfold.

Ted, a shy computer genius, had disliked to interact with his fellow students at the academy, and had tried to avoid them any way he could. He'd never shown up for fighting lessons, where he'd have to work with another student for practicing combat. As a result, he was a terrible fighter, and had to act as mission control for the team instead of being in the field where the action was. He also hacked computers for fun, which wasn't always a good thing. It would be pretty disastrous if he tried hacking into something while they were supposed to be undercover.

Drew lacked respect for authority and never took any mission seriously, so he was not easily controlled; he always did his own thing. This got the team into trouble more times than they could count, and drove his superiors nuts. And then there was his terrible habit of keeping nearly everything in his personal life to himself...

But perhaps the worst one was Lex. Lex was born in the Black Dragon Island's _prison._ After the mother died a few weeks later, Lex was dropped into Drew's hands, for reasons Drew (of course) had never specified. At the age of four, he became obsessed with numbers, and shut everything else out. He rarely connected with anyone anymore, except maybe Drew. At first people just thought he was shy. But when they had him tested, they found out that Lex had selective mutism, a type of mental disorder that took social anxiety to the extreme. He simply could not talk in public. Drew claimed Lex talked a little bit when it was just the two of them, but no one else had ever seen the strange little boy speak a single word.

Mark couldn't deny that he wasn't without his own flaws. He might be a little hard on his teammates, but that was part of being the leader. _Guess we're all mad here,_ he thought to himself.

As they reached the edge of the city, Drew broke into a run, and the other four followed. Mark wondered how Drew knew where they were going. After all, he'd never been anywhere the agency hadn't told him to go, had he?

"How do you know this place?" Mark demanded. Drew seemed not to hear him. That was another frustrating thing about the kid. Sometimes he would answer you, and sometimes he'd ignore you.

Suddenly Drew skidded to a stop in the town outskirts, panting slightly. "We'll never get there on foot," he admitted. "We'll have to get a ride."

"There are no rides around here, genius!" Gretta hissed.

"Then we'll make one," Ted announced confidently.

The agents looked around. The outskirts of town were not too impressive: most of the houses were flats, and all were a bit shabby-looking. The paint was chipped and cracked, some of the roof shingles were missing, and a few windows were boarded up. The toys and playsets in the backyards were broken and rusty. The wire fences were bent and torn, and the lawns were overgrown, like they hadn't been mown in years. There was erie silence throughout the neighborhood.

Ted let out a long, low whistle. "Snazzy place. Do you think anyone still lives here?"

"If they don't, they probably wouldn't mind if we borrowed a few of their things," Mark said, pointing to a rusty motorcycle. "It's not like they're using it right now. Ted, can you fix that thing?"

"Old Rusty here?" Ted asked incredulously, looking the old bike up and down with a repulsed expression. He sucked in air through his teeth. "I can try, but even if I get her going, she won't go very far." He walked over to the vehicle and crouched down, inspecting it. "But if I took her apart..." He stood back and scrutinized it, running his fingers through his hair. "I could use the parts that aren't rusted to the point of uselessness and combine them with other machine parts around here to make something completely new that has some potential." He looked at Mark, seeking approval of the plan.

Mark nodded. "Not a bad idea," he told his friend. In no time, the group was raiding the garages of the seemingly abandoned houses, bringing parts of machines to Ted as he quickly took apart the motorcycle until it was nothing but a frame. Not long after they had started, Ted suddenly emerged from behind the vehicle, beaming at the other four agents. "Done!" he announced, and they all stared in awe at the machine before them. It looked nothing like the pile of junk they had started with. It was still a motorcycle, but now it looked brand new. It was so smooth that it shone, and now it sported four seats, a sidecar, and a new paint job. There were also dozens of new switches and buttons on the controls. Mark had to hand it to Ted. The kid really knew how things worked.

Ted turned to Drew. "Okay, since you're the only one who seems to know where we're going, let me show you how this thing works so you can drive." He showed Drew how to accelerate, stop, and what all the numerous controls did. Ted was just pointing out the invisibility switch when suddenly there were shouts from inside one of the houses.

"Someone's broken in!"

"Call the cops!"

"There! I see the thieves! They're outside!"

All five agents jumped onto the motorcycle. "Step on it, Drew!" Ted yelled. Drew didn't need to be told twice. The team was gone before the homeowners could get a good look at them.

"Drew, could you please tell us where we're going?" Gretta shouted impatiently over the noise of the motorcycle. "We've had enough of you ignoring our questions!"

Drew looked hesitant for a moment. "Well, if you really want to know," Drew hollered back, "we happen to be going straight into enemy territory."

The other four agents stared at him. "What do you mean, 'enemy territory'?" Ted asked, alarmed.

"I mean what I say. We're on our way to the monastery of the Ninja."

* * *

 **(A/N) Oh yeah! We're finally gonna see our favorite Ninjas!**

 **Thanks again to lovesgod12 for following and favoriting!**

 **Next chapter we will see the ninjas for the first time and see some more suspicious things with Drew. Stay tuned because it's my winter break and I will finally be able to get some writing done! And...**

 **I think I've finally finished the first draft of my outline for the second book! YES! :D**

 **This means I'm going to have to close my poll. Sunday (tomorrow) at 10:00 P.M. is the deadline. There is still a tie between five votes, which isn't supposed to happen because you're supposed to pick four choices. If you want to vote on themes for subplots, now is the time! If I don't get any more votes by 10:00, I will pick from the five choices. Vote while you can!**

 **See you all next time! Review please!**


	4. Chapter 3: The Monastery

**(A/N) Hello again! So, I'm sorry I didn't update as much as I thought I would. My family went on a surprise vacation and we were almost always at the beach and I didn't have time to update. To make up for it, I'm giving you a double update. Differences in this chapter include a new scene and expansion on the old stuff. Happy New Year!**

* * *

Chapter 3

The Monastery

Lex straightened his tie to be completely vertical. The team was dressed to look like runaways from an orphanage: the boys wore grey sweaters with white shirts underneath, black ties, and black pants, while Gretta wore the same top and tie with a black skirt and white leggings. Ted, Drew and Gretta were complaining about how sweaty they were in their uniforms, and Mark was hiding the motorcycle in the trees, yelling at them to shut up. They had reached the forested valley thirty minutes ago, and had stopped when the monastery was in sight to change and to organize themselves. Lex covered his ears from the racket of his teammates around him. _Clearly,_ they were anything _but_ organized. He crept away from the noise so as to think more clearly.

Lex found his way to the edge of the woods and settled himself down in the shade of a tree. He found a small stick and began to work out a square root equation that had just popped into his head. He was just about to finish the problem when suddenly...

"What are you doing?"

Lex looked up from his work to see a small girl at least four years younger than him sitting on the ground across from him. Her reddish-brown hair was pulled back into a tight ponytail, and she wore a light blue dress with little white stripes on it. She was holding a dandelion in her hand, and was looking down at Lex's equation with curious brown eyes. Without much more than a quick glance at her, Lex got back to work. _I am not talking to her,_ Lex thought to himself. _I wish she would just go away._

"What are you doing?" she asked again. Lex narrowed his eyes at her, irritated by the repetition of the question. Why couldn't she just leave?! She stared innocently back. He tried to get back to his problem, but he realized he'd lost his place. When she asked a third time, Lex simply got up and walked further away from the trees and into the field. To his dread, the girl followed.

"You look like you are in a school uniform. Did you run away from school? You should never run away from school. My daddy's friend says when he ran away from school, he missed out on finding out he could dance. My daddy's friend is a good dancer. Can you dance? What were you drawing in the dirt? I can draw a house. Can you draw a house?" The girl kept up this constant stream of words as she tailed him through the meadow. Lex covered his ears. He would never understand why anyone would think that they needed to talk so much to him. He wanted her to be quiet and go away, but because he was selectively mute, he just couldn't get himself to talk to other people except for Drew.

Suddenly there was a shout from the direction of the monastery. "Katie? Katie, where are you? Recess is over! Katie?"

"Violet! Violet!" The little girl suddenly grabbed Lex by the wrist and began dragging him in the direction of the voice. "Violet! I found a boy who ran away from his school!" Lex tried to twist his arm free, but the little girl had an iron grip. He stumbled as she led him up the hill. When they reached the top, they were met with another girl. This one was much older; she looked about Drew's age. Her raven hair was pulled back into a tight ponytail, and her emerald eyes bored straight through him. The part that Lex was really worried about was what she was wearing: a black and purple gi.

This girl was a ninja.

She raised an eyebrow at him. "You look too small to have run too far. You must be from nearby. Brooksberry Boarding School? Or maybe Taft Academy? Let me get a better look at your uniform."

Lex ripped his arm free and began sprinting down the hill. He didn't get far, however, before he was violently flipped upside-down in the air. It felt like he was being held by one leg, and there was a large purple sphere encasing him. Then he saw the older girl striding down the hill towards him. She had one arm high in the air, a purple glow surrounding her hand. "You're pretty fast, for a little guy. You're coming with us."

In hindsight, leaving the group was not one of Lex's more ingenious ideas.

* * *

"Alright everyone, good lesson! Class dismissed!"

Lloyd watched the students file out of the room, chatting about what cool moves they had just learned and boasting about how well they did on the kick. Slowly, the lesson room emptied, and Lloyd was alone. He let the mask of cheerfulness melt into the gloomy face that expressed the true feelings of his weary soul.

Lloyd didn't like being alone.

When he was alone, there was nothing to distract him from the pain of the past. It hurt to remember all the time he'd spent at Darkly's Boarding School for Bad Boys, how he'd had to be mean just to fit in, how he'd had to pretend that he was someone else for so long that he almost believed it himself.

After his uncle had taken him in, his life seemed to be taking a turn for the better, until he'd been taken hostage by the Serpentine. When Kai finally saved him, he'd only been home on the _Bounty_ for less than ten minutes when he was suddenly no longer a normal kid, he was a prophesied hero: the green ninja.

At first it had seemed cool to be someone foretold by destiny, but it quickly became clear that being the green ninja meant he wouldn't have a normal childhood. He couldn't play with other kids or read comic books or spend an entire weekend watching TV and playing video games. No, he had to train, train, train all day, every day, having no fun. Not to mention the fact that being the green ninja _also_ meant that he had to _face_ and _defeat_ his _own father..._

It was even more painful to remember how he'd been _literally stripped_ of his childhood, turned into a teenager, and as a result had suddenly found himself _even more_ pressured with fulfilling the prophesy.

It had ultimately been easier for Lloyd to face his father in the end, because Garmadon had been possessed by the Overlord Dragon at the time; Lloyd didn't have to look at his father's pitiful face as he fought him, because his father was dormant inside the Overlord, no longer able to reach out to his son. Once it was all over, and his father was cleansed, their family was finally reunited, and Lloyd could be truly _happy_ for once in his life.

But, sadly, it didn't last, and only two years later, Lloyd found himself on the run from the Digital Overlord, this time with his now-benign father at his side. It was nice to spend some time with his dad, but the constant need to keep moving in order to evade capture always loomed over their heads.

And once he _did_ get caught, he was immediately thrown in an extraction chamber to be drained of his golden power in an excruciating deprivation process. At that point his golden power had become a vital factor in his survival and being deprived of it could potentially kill him. He had barely gotten out of that place alive. Lloyd had been claustrophobic ever since.

After the ninja had erased the Overlord from the system, he'd realized that he couldn't keep all of his power, and had to give it away to his friends, keeping just enough for himself to stay alive.

Of course, then _one_ of his friends _died..._ then suddenly came _back_...

When they had gone to Chen's Island to find Zane, Lloyd finally wasn't the only one who was a target, they were _all_ in danger. That wasn't exactly a good thing, but at least he wasn't alone.

Then he'd found out that his father was a _liar_ , sending to Lloyd's mother a stolen love letter that he didn't even have the right to _see,_ because _Wu_ had been the one who wrote it, not Garmadon. Suddenly Lloyd was the result of a _lie..._ what could be more painful than _that?_

Unbelievably, it _did_ get more painful. Only a few days later, his father-

 _Stop._

Lloyd tried to yank himself out of his memories. He had to stop reliving his past before he got to the time Morro possessed him-

 _Stop._

Lloyd used to know how to break down his pain. He used to be very good at hiding it.

That all changed seven years ago.

 _Stop._

It was his most agonizing memory.

 _Stop!_

The night that would haunt him forever, that would never let him be happy again.

 _STOP._

The night Lloyd lost one of the two most important people in his life.

"Stop!"

Lloyd whirled around and stared at the door. _That_ hadn't come from his head; someone else had yelled in the hallway. He stood frozen, waiting to see if someone was coming in. Then he heard the voice again.

"Stop, Violet! You're hurting his arm!"

" _I'm_ hurting his arm? Katie, you looked like you were cutting off the circulation to his hand when you dragged him over to me!"

The door slid open, revealing two girls, one of them pulling a small boy by the arm that Lloyd didn't recognize. He couldn't have been more than seven, had a pale skin tone, and blonde hair. He also seemed to be wearing a school uniform. A runaway?

"Violet," Lloyd began patiently. He knew harsh tones did not work on his daughter. It was one more way to get into a shouting match with her. "Let go of the poor boy. He looks terrified." She did as she was told. "Thank you.

"Now," Lloyd said, addressing the boy with a smile. "What might your name be?" The boy said nothing. Lloyd tried again. "My name is Lloyd, but the children here call me Sensei. Could you tell me yours?" Still the boy gave no response. "Hey. You can talk to me. I don't bite." He laid a hand on the small boy's shoulder.

That was the wrong thing to do.

In an instant, Lloyd was on his back, having been knocked over by a move that was too fast for him to react to. Violet helped him up, but the boy was already gone. Lloyd was shocked. He tried to think of what could have just happened. How could a scrawny little boy flip the _green ninja_ up and over his shoulder as easily as if he were tossing a coin?

"No one does that to _my_ dad!" Violet yelled. She pulled her hood over her head and raced out of the room. Lloyd stood up and followed, trying to ignore the pain in his back.

* * *

"I think I found something!"

Ted was using the computer he'd installed in his glasses to search the area's environment for any signs of what may have happened to Lex. He was quite proud of his glasses. He'd invented them himself when he was only nine. Sensors lined the frames, and the lenses were tiny screens that had five modes: x/y graph mode, x-ray mode, environmental analysis mode, zooming mode, and normal mode. He had it on environmental analysis mode now, and he tapped a tiny button near the hinge as he bent down for a closer look at a patch of dirt. The rest of the team crowded around Ted as he inspected the spot.

Gretta snorted. "Whoever drew _that_ piece of trash has never taken an art lesson."

"It's not a drawing. It's a square root equation," Ted corrected her, pointing at the square root containing 4x plus 3.

Mark picked up a nearby stick. "The tip is covered with mud. It must be the stick that was used," he observed with his keen tracking skills.

Ted looked up at it. After a moment, he said, "I've analyzed the fingerprints with my glasses. They're Lex's, alright."

"But where is he now?" Drew cried, kicking a stone into the bushes. Ted looked up at his friend with a little bit of pity. Drew always got upset whenever Lex was in trouble. They were as close as brothers.

"Calm down, Drew. We'll find him." Ted stood up and looked around the meadow. Suddenly, he saw something. The grass had been parted in a trail that snaked through the field and up and over a hill. "Actually, I think we may have already found him."

The team ran to the top of the hill and found themselves looking down at a tall monastery. It was just like the one they saw in the photo they were given at the island. A waterfall cascaded down the cliff into a small pond behind the building that ran into a waterwheel. A stone wall surrounded the place and the small cottages around it. Inside the front gates of the monastery itself was a large outdoor training course. The four agents hurried through the village and down the cobblestone path to the open front gates. When they reached the grand doors, they pulled them open, shedding sunlight on the scene they had been afraid they would find. There was Lex, pinned to a column by two figures. One wore a purple gi, and the other wore black robes and held a bamboo staff in his hand. _That's not good,_ Ted thought, knowing exactly what would happen next.

Drew snapped into protective sibling mode. _"You let go of my little brother!"_ he shouted, and in the blink of an eye he had crossed the distance between them. In two swift moves, both of Lex's captors were on the floor, gasping from the seemingly split-second attack. "You okay, buddy?" Drew asked Lex, concerned.

Suddenly, the foe in the purple gi jumped up and ran at Drew. "Look out, Drew! He's coming back!" Ted warned.

Drew turned and got in position for a fight, but the purple ninja skidded to a stop five feet from him and turned toward Ted. "Ex _cuse_ me?For your information, I'm a _she."_

"What? Wait, take off your hood," Drew told her. The ninja did as she was told. A pale face with green eyes and freckles scowled down at him. Drew took a sharp intake of breath. _"You?!"_ he gasped.

She raised an eyebrow. "Have we met before?" she asked suspiciously.

"No," Drew answered perhaps a little too quickly. There was an awkward silence that was suddenly broken by a loud crash. Gretta had apparently gotten bored, and in an effort to amuse herself, had knocked over a vase sitting on the window sill, shattering it on the ground. Everyone stared in shock.

"Somebody broke that," she said flatly.

The man with the bamboo staff stormed over. "What. In. The. Name. Of. _Ninjago-"_ he sputtered at her. Ted's heart sank lower and lower. The plan was already failing. He couldn't even imagine the Black Dragons' faces when the team would return home with no progress at all-

"Lloyd!"

Suddenly, six people burst into the room. All wore ninja gis - blue, red, silver, orange, black, dark red - and all looked ready for a fight, brandishing a wide range of weapons. The one wearing blue crossed his arms. "Gaah! Lloyd, I thought you said there was only one kid. I see five!"

Another ninja that was - _translucent,_ Ted observed with wonder- said, "One, five, whatever it may be, we have to get rid of them!"

"Wait!" Mark shouted, throwing his hands in the air. "I'm sure we can sort this out without a fight!" The agents waited, holding their breath while the ninja looked at eachother, apparently making a silent agreement. The one wearing orange stepped forward.

"Alright," she said. "Let's start with what you guys are here for in the first place."

* * *

Drew sat down on the bed in the room that the ninja had designated as his and reflected on the night's events.

The ninja had sat down with the team. Mark had told them the alibi: he, Gretta, Ted, Drew, and Lex were runaways from a school where they had been mistreated by their teachers and peers. They had heard of Garmadon's old monastery that was now being run by the Ninja and decided to go there and ask if they could join. It was a sappy sob story, but Lloyd had taken pity on them and allowed them to stay.

So now Drew and the rest of his team were students at Lloyd Garmadon's Ninja Academy. They had been shown around the monastery and taken to their new rooms to get settled in. Drew had already unpacked and gotten his pajamas on. He couldn't get to sleep though, even though it was already dark outside. He walked over to the window and stuck his head out. A cool breeze was in the air. Suddenly there was a flash in his vision, and he collapsed on the floor. He was younger, and he wasn't in the same room anymore. He felt alone and helpless as a night from seven years ago began to replay itself in his head.

 _I remember it well. It was a cold, late autumn night. The sky was covered with clouds so that not one star shone. Even the moonlight was blotted out. The wind howled eerily outside the monastery._

"Drew! Drew! Can you hear me?"

... _Then someone screamed downstairs. Everyone, teachers and students, ran toward the cry. When we reached the front hall, we were terrified at the scene before us._

"No, Drew! You're not in danger! There's no one here who will hurt you!"

... _They took us out of the vehicle and onto the dock of an unfamiliar island. The night was even colder and darker there than at home. I was afraid._

"Drew! You're in Sensei Lloyd's monastery! Drew! _Wake up!"_

Drew suddenly awoke, gasping for breath. He was covered in sweat. He looked up. Mark, Gretta, Ted and Sensei Lloyd were all looking down at him with concern. They helped him sit up. He tensed up a bit, since he hated being touched. "What happened?" the teacher asked. Lloyd tried to put a hand on his shoulder, but Drew shrunk away.

"Dozed off," Drew panted.

Gretta crossed her arms. "Don't lie Drew. We all know you were having a flashback. _Dozed off -_ please. You were _screaming!"_

Sensei Lloyd looked at Ted. "Has this happened before?" he asked.

Ted helped Drew up onto the bed, despite the latter's protests. "Oh, quit being such a baby when it comes to people touching you, Drew!" Ted reprimanded. Then he turned to answer the teacher's question. "It used to happen all the time. But he hasn't had a flashback in - how long has it been, Drew?"

"Three years," Drew reminded, wiping his brow and still shaking. Drew was dumbfounded. He couldn't believe that he'd had a PTSD attack. It had been so long since his last episode; he thought he had gotten over it.

"What caused it?" Mark asked. He could be a strict leader, but all leaders must have concern for their teammates.

"I stuck my head out the window, and it's a cold, breezy night."

"Are you gonna be okay if we leave now?"

"Yeah, I think so."

"Okay. You know where our rooms are." And one by one, they all filed out of the room.

Drew lied back on his bed. He was exhausted, but he didn't know if he'd be able to sleep now...

* * *

Nya stepped quietly down the hallway with a candle, careful not to wake any sleeping students. She descended the staircase to the first floor, and exited through the back door into the garden. The flame flickered, so she shielded the candle with her hand so that it would not blow out. She walked across the bridge over the pond that the waterfall emptied into, and climbed the small hill to the temple on the other side. Nya bowed before entering the place.

It was a small, square-shaped temple, only the about the size of the main dojo in the monastery. There were no windows, and there was no door in the arched entryway. The floor was made of marble, and the walls of stone. Nya walked to the center of the room, where a large stone statue of the First Spinjitzu Master sat cross-legged on the floor. In his hands was a bowl of incense. It had gone out since Nya's last nightly visit. She used her candle to relight it, then bowed low. She then proceeded to relight the other candles around the room. Each one stood in front of a small statue. There were dozens, because there was one for every deceased ancestor, relative, and close friend of the ninja. She started with the most ancient ones on the left of the doorway, and made her way around the room clockwise. She did this nightly routine not because it was a job or responsibility of hers, but because she wanted to.

When she got to the more recent losses, she took extra time for the statues of those she had been especially close to, such as her parents, Sensei Wu, Garmadon, and Misako. Then she came to the statue of the four lost students. But the candle wouldn't light. Nya tried again. Same result. No matter how long she let the candlewicks touch, it just refused to catch fire.

 _"They return..."_ a deep, echoing voice uttered.

"What?" Nya gasped, almost dropping the candle. "Who's there?" She turned to see the statue of the First Spinjitzu Master emitting a golden aura. She rushed over to it as it continued to communicate from beyond the grave.

 _"They return...one sees truth...the others see lies..."_ The aura flickered with every word the voice spoke.

"Return? Truth? Lies? What are you talking about?"

 _"Beware...they know not who they are..."_

"Beware?"

 _"Darkness is coming...and you cannot stop them..."_

"What do you mean?" Nya cried, falling on her knees. Suddenly, a cold wind rushed around the room and blew out all the candles, including her own.

 _"The light will be forced to hide...the land will be consumed by darkness...and the darkness will be consumed by an evil shadow within the light..."_

"What?!"

 _"The evil shadow will usher in a new dark age...an age of great danger for the light..."_

"When? Please, explain yourself! What do I do?"

 _"Nya, Master of Water...prepare...for they will return..."_

The golden glow around the statue faded into nothingness, and the only light was the moon shining through the doorway. Nya ran out of the temple and back to the monastery. She had to tell the other teachers about this. Whatever this meant, it couldn't be anything good...

* * *

 **(A/N) You're right, Nya, it can't be anything good. That's foreshadowing there, so don't ignore it! I added that scene mainly because I needed to have more of the canon characters in the fic.**

 **Also, I have done my research on the mental disorders I have chosen for the characters and I hope I have not offended anyone if anything has been inaccurate. If there is something I can improve upon, please say so in the reviews. PLEASE do not leave me in the dark.**

 **By the way, you may have noticed that all the agents seem to have very quick reflexes. That's actually just the Black Dragon fighting style. It's characterized by super-quick movements so as to stay one step ahead of your opponent. It's one more thing that makes them so dangerous.**

 **WARNING: RANT AHEAD. You don't have to read this. I just had to get this out in writing.**

 **I know I sort of implied this in the chapter, but I absolutely** _ **hate**_ **how Lloyd is portrayed as emotionally invincible. I am extremely relieved that in season five (possession) they finally showed that he does have some weakness (he can't bear to lose people), but you'd think that after all the horrible things that have happened to him, he'd at least have some sort of emotional scarring done. I mean, he was put into a capsule to have the life drained out of him, for crying out loud! I know it's a kids' show but they've pulled off risky, border-line things like that before. I'll list a few: Garmadon's visibly painful metamorphosis into the Overlord in season 2, Zane's visibly painful death scene in season 3, all the times Chen sucked elemental powers from the elemental fighters in season 4 in a visibly painful draining ceremony, the visibly painful transformation into anacondrai, oh, and let's not forget about Lloyd being possessed by a ghost. There is** _ **no way**_ **he has not been emotionally affected by all this. And yet Lego** _ **still**_ **makes him impenetrable.**

 **That's why I decided I would have to put something in his story that would make him**

 **finally**

 _ **break.**_

 **Review!**


	5. Chapter 4: This Silent Fear

**(A/N) Hey! So this is a very short chapter, and I'm sorry about that, but on the upside we'll see the return of Agent i and Lloyd almost figures out who his new students really are!**

* * *

Chapter 4

This Silent Fear

"Got anything yet?"

The five agents were eating an amazing breakfast made by Sensei Zane in the vast dining hall. They had found an empty table in a secluded corner and were now gathered around Ted's laptop. The computer expert looked around for the person who had asked the question and saw Drew setting down his tray next to him. "Nope," he murmured back. "Still waiting for orders from headquarters." Ted studied his friend. "You don't look so great. Still shaken up from last night?"

"Yeah," Drew muttered. Ted nodded and didn't continue questioning. Suddenly there was a small ping from the laptop. The team quickly crowded around the screen to read the message.

set up surveillance cameras remember you're spying on ninja be careful

agent i

Drew snorted. "Is Agent I a three-year-old? 'Cause he sure writes like one."

"Maybe 'i' stands for 'idiot,'" grinned Ted. The two sniggered.

"Heads up!" Gretta suddenly hissed. Ted quickly opened up a chess game on his laptop to hide the message as three older kids in black gis approached the table.

They were all big and muscular, but one of them made the other two look tiny. The three sat down opposite the team, and the biggest snatched one of Ted's egg rolls and popped it in his mouth. "Name's Xavier," he said after swallowing. "This is Avery, and that's Zach."

"Ex _cuse_ me, but it's not polite to take someone else's food," Gretta chided.

Xavier turned toward her with raised eyebrows. "You're pretty bold to lecture the top dogs in this house," he said. Then he smirked. "I don't think I've met a girl who's both bold _and_ cute. What's your name?"

Gretta slowly rose from her seat, her eyes flashing threateningly. The voices of the students in the hall died down to whispers as all eyes turned toward the commotion. Ted, Mark, Drew, and Lex watched helplessly as she picked up her chopsticks and walked to the other side of the table to where Xavier sat. There was nothing the team could do at this point. Xavier had crossed the line. Faster than lightning, Gretta fixed the chopsticks on a pressure point on his neck. "The name's Gretta," she snarled. "And _never_ call me _cute_."

"Gretta! Let him go!" A blast of green energy from down the hall hit Gretta, and she fell to the floor, unconscious. Sensei Lloyd had arrived. He bent down and felt Gretta's forehead. "I want everyone at this table in my office, now."

* * *

Drew tapped his foot to a song that was running through his head while he waited on a very hard, uncomfortable chair for his turn in the office. He'd forgotten what the song was called, and who the person who sang it was. He did know the lyrics, however.

 _Better odds await the faint of heart,_

 _I've got a new disaster to start,_

 _I'm gonna make my day._

 _Way too deep to cash out now,_

 _Upside-down and inside-out,_

 _I never knew it was not okay,_

 _It's a neverender..._

Drew couldn't carry a tune in a bucket, but he did like that song.

Suddenly Ted exited the office, shocking Drew out of his trance. "Tag: you're it," he mumbled, and sauntered off. Drew stood up, took a deep breath, and slid open the door.

Drew had expected to find a gloomy, dungeon-like setting for his lecture, but he was surprised when he walked in. There were three windows, all wide open to let in sunshine. A vase of flowers sat on a side table next to two picture frames. One showed a happy family of three in front of a house in a forest. The other showed a whole crowd of smiling faces in what looked like a ruined Ninjago City many, many years ago. Drew picked it up and, looking around to check that no one was there, studied it. The people in it looked like younger versions of the Ninja themselves.

"That picture was taken after the first defeat of the Overlord more than twenty years ago." Drew jumped. Sensei Lloyd had appeared out of nowhere. "And the other one was taken only ten years ago."

Drew quickly put down the photo. "I'm really sorry. I was just-"

"-curious. I know," Lloyd finished for him. He walked over, his walking stick thumping lightly on the floor. He picked up the one of the family in the woods, a nostalgic look in his eyes. "These were some of my happier days."

"That's you?" Drew asked, referring to the father in the photo.

"That's me. And there's Violet. She was only two. And that," he pointed to the laughing woman, "that is my wife, Heather. You wouldn't know her. She died seven years ago." His eyes looked distant for a moment. "Now," he finally said, "Your turn to tell me something." He gestured to two mats on the floor. Drew sat on one, and Lloyd on the other. "What happened during lunch?"

Drew sighed. "Gretta's always been like that," he said. "She was like that where we were before. It's nothing to really worry about. We're used to it."

"The others have said that she is in no way a danger to the students. However, they all sounded a bit, how shall I put it, _edgy._ I want to know what _you_ think about her. I can tell already that you aren't the same as they are." Lloyd stopped there, waiting for Drew's answer.

Drew thought long and hard. If he said anything, it might give them away, and the sensei could tell the police and turn them in.

Why should he tell him?

But if he said nothing, he'd lose the teacher's trust. He finally spoke slowly, with much caution. "She _can_ be a danger, but only if she's left unchecked."

Immediately Drew realized he was cornered. Lloyd raised his thin eyebrows. "So she _is_ a threat? May I ask what she might do if left unchecked?" Drew kept his mouth shut. If he said one more word, he'd be in trouble.

* * *

Lloyd looked Drew straight in the eyes. Many years ago, his uncle had trained him how to look into people's hearts just by staring them in the eyes. It was a way for Lloyd to connect with others. It wasn't telepathy. It was more of an ability to pick up on the feelings of other people's souls, allowing one to potentially get to know someone even better than that person knows him or herself.

Now Lloyd used that tactic on Drew. And he was surprised at what he found behind the tough outer shell.

Fear.

Fear and confusion and suffering beyond what Drew should have experienced at his age. Fear of getting hurt. Fear of others getting hurt. Fear of actions of others. Fear of trusting others. Fear of himself. He reminded Lloyd of another fifteen-year-old boy he had known twenty years ago.

Himself.

Reading others' feelings was not the same thing as reading others' minds, so Lloyd could not pinpoint the cause of these feelings without Drew directly telling him. That obviously wasn't going to happen. So Lloyd tried something else.

"Do you enjoy poetry?" he asked. Drew had been looking down at the mat, but looked up the moment Lloyd said the word "poetry". Lloyd smiled. "I'll take that as a yes?"

"Sure. I like to write myself."

"Are you familiar with Sensei Yin's poem, _Silent Fear?"_

Drew immediately began to recite it:

 _"It binds my tongue with chains,_

 _It fills my heart with pains,_

 _It makes me lie,_

 _And though I've tried,_

 _This silent fear won't let me cry."_

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" Lloyd asked once he had finished. "Sad, but an eloquent illustration of what fear can do."

Drew nodded in agreement.

"Do you know what I think?"

"What?"

"I think the poem was about someone who had a secret they were too afraid to tell. Perhaps they were threatened. Or maybe bribed. You could take it even more literally and suggest that perhaps the person was being actively forced to do such things."

"Actively forced?"

"Enchanted. Spellbound. Cursed. Possessed, even."

Drew was silent for a while. Finally he asked, "Did he get out of it?"

"I'm not sure. But I think I know how one _could_ get out of it."

"How?"

"By facing his fears and fighting the force that is controlling him."

"I don't think it's that easy."

"It's not. I should know. But it is a fight that can be won, although not without sacrifice."

They were both silent for a while. Finally, Drew spoke. "I think I get your point," he said quietly.

"Well, in that case, you may leave now, Drew." Lloyd announced, breaking the silence. The two stood up, and Lloyd began to walk back toward his desk.

"Sensei?"

Lloyd turned. That was the first time Drew had ever called him that. "Yes, Drew?"

"Say the person in the poem was afraid of doing what's right because someone else could get hurt. Is it still wrong to be dishonest if the life of another person is at stake?"

Lloyd stared at Drew. He had not expected that. Was that what was going on? Was the situation that dire? What could this boy possibly be going through? Was there really a life on the line? Lloyd decided to choose his words carefully. "That's a very good question, Drew. I'm not really quite sure I can give you a good answer. I suppose it depends on the weight of the situation." Lloyd paused to think. He would need to be very cautious with this. "Is the person in question being forced to do something illegal, or not?"

"Say it's illegal."

"Can the person tell the authorities, or would that make the situation worse?"

"Say it'll make it much worse."

"Then I suppose you will have to decide what's best, won't you?"

Drew's eyes widened as it dawned on him that he had given Lloyd too many clues. "Did you just-" he began, but Lloyd held up his hand.

"You are free to go," he said shortly, and Drew quickly left the office, sliding the door shut behind him.

* * *

As Drew left the office, a dark figure in the shadows silently looked on. When he was sure the boy was gone, the figure strode casually into an empty hallway. He slipped into the shadows once more before pressing his finger to his ear.

"Carson. Agent I here. You wouldn't _believe_ how easy this is," he whispered into the darkness.

Miles away on Black Dragon Island, the assistant heard him and responded, _"Enough with the cockiness, I. Any progress by Nightprowler yet?"_

"Negative."

 _"Progress by you?"_

"Positive."

 _"Do they suspect anything?"_

"Negative."

 _"Is the email sent?"_

"Positive."

 _"...You're not a bad double agent, i. Vladomir should give you a raise."_

"Carson, I was _born_ into this job. How could I be bad at it?"

Agent i hung up on his client's assistant and smiled. They had no idea what his _true_ intentions were...

* * *

 **(A/N) Hee hee hee hee hee!**

 **What are his true intentions? You'll just have to find out in the sequal!**

 **And...I have nothing else to say.**

 **Review!**


	6. Chapter 5: A New Disaster To Start

**(A/N) TRIPLE update today!**

 **This is it guys! The Chapter you've been waiting for! Drew's finally going to spill the beans! The title is actually from a line from** _ **Neverender,**_ **the song by The Fold that this fic is named after. Tell me if you find the hidden Sensei Wu line in here! Now read!**

* * *

Chapter 5

A New Disaster To Start

Gretta was in her new room, reviewing the task sheet for the mission and _finally_ checking off setting up all the surveillance cameras, when Mark slid open the door and poked his head in.

"We're supposed to go to the equipment room," he informed her.

"Why?" she asked.

Mark shrugged. "I dunno. All I know is we have to meet in there ASAP."

Gretta put the mission print-out in the middle of a book so no one would find it and followed the team leader out of the room. They climbed to the fifth floor and slid open the third door on the left. Once inside, Gretta's eyes widened.

The equipment room was the weapons expert's dream. It was very spacious, with a high ceiling, and weapons of every shape and size hung on the walls. Armor lined the racks and gis of every color sat on the shelves. There were ladders like those in fancy libraries to reach anything on one of the higher shelves. The Elemental Power class teacher, Skylor, was standing in front of a large ornate golden door at the back of the room. Drew, Ted, and Lex had already arrived and were standing to her left. Gretta and Mark went to stand next to their teammates. After a moment, Skylor spoke.

"Mark, Gretta, Drew, Ted, and Lex," she began, "you stand before the door to one of the most sacred places in this monastery: The Element Room. This temple is where each of you will have your soul element determined in The Initiation."

"The Initiation?" Gretta asked. _Sounds like a pretentious name given to a kindergarten graduation ceremony to make it sound less boring,_ she thought cynically.

Seeming to ignore Gretta's snide tone, Skylor continued. "The Initiation is the test to determine the element that your soul calls to. It will also determine which element you will be associated with in your time as a student here. It also gives you your ninja gi. In this room, you will become an official ninja student at the Academy." She paused to look at the faces of each of the five newcomers, then opened the door. "If you will now follow me, please."

* * *

Never before had Ted seen such architectural beauty. The Element Room was a circular temple with a high domed ceiling decorated with paintings of warriors in battle. The walls and floor were made of white marble, and the twenty pillars around the room were made of black marble, and each had a unique symbol carved into it. At the opposite side of the door of the circular room was a raised platform with the same symbols as the ones on the pillars etched into it. Bowls of burning incense hung from the ceiling, and a thousand candles placed around the circumference of the room lit the temple with a dim glow.

Skylor led them into the center of the room and gestured to the platform. "There are a total of twenty elements. They are: Fire, Lightning, Earth, Ice, Energy, Water, Amber, Form, Smoke, Nature, Wind, Sound, Mind, Metal, Time, Gravity, Shadow, Poison, Light, and Aloe. Your soul only calls to one. We will go in order of your ages. Would the oldest among you please step onto the platform to be tested." Mark approached the spot with a confident stride. The moment he stepped onto it, the platform began to emit a powerful light and a soft humming noise filled the air. Alarmed, he looked all around the room, and a black symbol appeared above his head.

"Earth," Skylor said. "Go to your respective pillar, Mark." As she said this, one of the pillars shone, and the same symbol appeared on it. The team leader walked toward the pillar and stood before it. As he did, a cyclone of rocks surrounded him. When it died away, he was not wearing the same clothes he had on only moments ago. He was clothed in a black gi with gray armor on his shoulders. He wore a brown belt with a texture that resembled rocks, and on his chest was the same symbol that appeared on the column he stood by.

"Cooooooooool," Ted and Drew said simultaneously.

"Now the second oldest," Skylor ordered.

"Time to shine," Gretta sang at her teammates as she stepped onto the platform. The light shone, the hum sounded, and a white symbol appeared above her.

"Ice," Skylor announced. Another pillar glowed, and when Gretta stood in front of it, a light blue tornado with white flurries surrounded her. When it dissipated, she was wearing what looked like one of the fancy outfits professional figure skaters wear to competitions: she wore a short white skirt that looked like it would flutter in a breeze, and her tight-fitting white top was decorated with a glittering snowflake pattern and had an open back. She wore white skates that went all the way up her calves, and white gloves that went up to her elbows. Gretta beamed. Though she often acted like a tough girl, it was not unknown to her team that she did like to wear girly clothes sometimes.

Drew's turn was up, and when he went up to the platform, a scarlet symbol flashed. "Fire," said Skylor. Drew stepped over to the pillar that had his symbol on it, and he was surrounded by a red, fiery twister. After the flames went out, he was in a bright red gi that had a flame pattern rising up from the belt and a symbol like the one that had determined his element was carved into a small pin on his chest. Like Mark, he too now sported shoulder armor, but Drew's was gold.

Before Skylor could even say "next", Ted, feeling left out, was already rushing to the pedestal. He wondered what he'd look like. Would he look just as awesome as his teammates? Or would his gi look stupid? Before he could ask himself another question, his symbol formed above him.

"Lightning," he heard Skylor say behind him. He rushed over to his pillar, the symbol on it shining a deep blue. As soon as he got close, he began to feel a tingle in his hands and feet. The tingle became a shocking sensation, but it didn't hurt. He felt his adrenaline rushing as he was surrounded by a blue storm of electricity. He felt like that time he was on sugar high from drinking ten cans of soda pop. Mark had yelled his voice hoarse at him that day.

When the tornado vanished, he looked at himself and gave a whoop. He was wearing nearly all black, but he had a blue belt on, blue straps crossing down his chest and back, and his mask that covered the lower half of his face was also blue. But what he was really excited about was-

"Ha! I've got more armor than you two!" Ted laughed at Drew and Mark. And it was true. Not only did he have silver shoulder armor, but it extended all the way down both of his arms, a "tough" look that seemed to make up for his lack of size. Drew crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes at his friend.

"And last, but not least," Skylor turned to where Lex had been standing, but he was gone. Suddenly the humming sound that had accompanied the shining symbols came back, but it was as if some one had turned up the volume on it. They all turned to see Lex standing on the platform looking terrified. The platform glowed a blinding white and trembled under the small boy's feet. Strangely, this was not unlike something else Ted had seen before. The platform looked like it was a machine that was overheating from too much activity. Finally, the platform couldn't hold together anymore, and it split in two.

Lex fell to the ground, and Drew, being the protective older brother Lex never had, ran over and helped him up. Skylor was in shock. "What was that?" she breathed.

Gretta, Mark, and Ted rushed to the broken platform to investigate. Mark bent down and traced the crack with his finger. "Holy crap," he whispered.

"What?" Ted asked.

"Look at the way the platform split."

Ted looked closely, then gasped. The platform had split in a shape that perfectly resembled the two halves of yin and yang. Skylor stared at Lex with disbelief.

Was there something different about him that the magic in the temple couldn't handle?

* * *

The next day, Drew woke up on the wrong side of the bed to an ear-splitting clanging out in the hallway.

"Evil doesn't sleep and neither should you! Get up! And make sure you all eat a good breakfast, because today is another big day! We've got training to do!" Sensei Lloyd's voice rang out in the hallway. Drew got out of bed groggily and opened the door to see the head teacher banging a small gong with a mallet to wake everyone up. Drew sighed and closed the door so he could change out of his pajamas. _Guess I'm a real ninja now,_ he thought as he pulled his gi on, trying to ignore the ringing in his ears. He went to his bathroom to brush his teeth, reflecting on yesterday's events.

After the platform broke, Skylor had gone into the back of the weapons room and pulled out an assortment of backup gis. They were the smallest she could find, but they were all slightly bigger than Lex's size. Lex's selective mutism was acting up again and he didn't choose, so Drew picked out the smallest of the gis, a green one with little white stars on the front. Even though it was the smallest in stock, it was still a little baggy around the ankles and the arms were a bit too long. Lex seemed to like it though.

After that, they had chosen weapons. Gretta, being a sharpshooter, chose a bow and an assortment of different kinds of arrows. Mark wanted a small dagger for close combat. Ted, not being a very skilled fighter, was reluctant to choose anything, but in the end he had settled for a pair of four-pointed throwing stars. Drew outright refused for Lex to have anything, but couldn't help noticing a steel katana in the corner that he thought he himself might look good with.

So today was his first day as a student here. Drew tried to comb his hair down the way it was supposed to go to avoid facial recognition (preferring to keep it messy, he hated doing this, but Mark would yell at him if he didn't), but he had been having a bit of trouble with his hair lately. It had started to take a great deal of effort to flatten it. After multiple tries to tame the wild beast, he just gave up. He was in a bad mood today and didn't care anyhow. He grabbed his katana and headed out.

He trudged down the stairs to the first floor and entered the dining hall. Without bothering to sit down, he grabbed a breakfast sandwich from the line and sauntered off in the direction of the dojo, eating his meal on the walk. Nothing woke him up better than a good warm up combat exercise.

He slid the door to the dojo open, and after making sure no one else was there, let himself in. He walked over to a punching bag and closed his eyes. He imagined he was standing in front of a Black Dragon agent. He drew back his fist, putting into it all his anger and hatred he was forced to keep bottled up. Then he threw it at the bag, taking it all out on a piece of training equipment so it didn't show up in a conversation or something. That would be disastrous. He continued this, making every punch and kick count for a loss.

 _That's for forcing me to hurt people._

 _That's for making me lie._

 _That's for what you did to Lex._

 _That's for robbing me of the life I could have led without you._

He was so engrossed in relieving his anger, he didn't notice someone intruding on him.

"Could you give the poor punching bag a break? What did he ever do to you?"

"AAAHHH!" Drew yelped in surprise. It was Violet. "What are you doing here?"

"I was just coming down here to practice before class."

Drew was taken aback. "You too?"

"Yeah. I like to warm up so I can get ahead of everyone else." She walked over to him, looking like she wanted to talk a bit more, but Drew was still too mad at her about their first encounter, and so he turned away. Violet seemed to sense the tension, and bit her lip. "Look," she began, "I'm... sorry about the other day. I was having a bad day and when Lex hurt my dad, that was the last straw. I was a pretty big jerk that day, so... can we start over?"

Drew turned around to look at her. She was holding her hand out for him to shake, and she actually looked like she was being honest. After a bit of hesitation, he went ahead and shook it. They stood there awkwardly for a moment. "Hey, do you want to maybe practice together?" Violet suggested.

Once again, she had surprised Drew. After a moment, he answered, "Sure. Why not?"

They went to the center of the room and took fighting stances, each waiting to see if the other would make the first move. Finally, Violet charged at him, but he easily threw her off. She however, proved to be just as prepared by quickly bouncing back into a standing position, her feet never wobbling for a second. As they continued their duel, Drew had to admit that she was quite the fighter. They seemed to be pretty evenly matched in terms of skill.

 _Maybe I was wrong to judge her so soon,_ Drew thought.

They went on fighting for a while longer, but they soon became tired and they sat down on the floor to rest.

"You're pretty good," he panted.

"Thanks. You too," she responded, a little short of breath as well. "But it's weird."

"What's weird?"

"I was told by my dad that you seem to hate being touched, yet you have to touch people all the time when you're fighting."

"Well, fighting is different."

"No, not really. People are still touching you, aren't they?"

"Well, for me, it feels different. I don't know why, it just does."

"Whatever."

As they sat resting, for some reason, Drew couldn't stop staring at her eyes. They were very pretty. Her green irises sparkled like emeralds. When she caught him staring, he looked away quickly.

"What?" she asked.

"Nothing."

"Oh, come on. You were staring at me."

"Well... I was... looking at your eyes," he admitted sheepishly.

Her pale cheeks turned a light pink. "Oh. Yeah. They're the only thing I got from my dad. Everything else you see here is from my mom."

Drew and Violet just sat there staring at eachother in silence until the sound of a walking stick thumping against the floor startled them both. They turned in horror to see the last person they wanted to barge in on this scene.

"S-Sensei!"

"Dad!"

"I'm sorry. Was I interrupting something?" Sensei Lloyd asked with a smirk. It was quite obvious that he had gotten the wrong idea.

"Dad, we weren't, I mean we're not-"

"It's okay. I can leave you two alone if you want," Sensei Lloyd teased.

"DAD!"

It looked like Violet was starting to get riled up, so Drew decided to leave this scene before it got messy. Besides, Drew was still trying to make sense of his and Sensei Lloyd's talk from earlier. He walked the halls in silence, contemplating his teacher's advice.

 _Then I suppose you will have to decide what's best, won't you?_ His teacher's words kept repeating themselves in Drew's head.

What was best?

Telling the truth but facing the possibility of someone close to him dying?

Or keeping the secret but continuing to live this lie of a life forever?

But why should he tell the truth? Because it was the right thing to do?

 _How should I even know what's 'right'? I've been doing bad things nonstop for the past seven years! I'm the last person to know about moral responsibilities._

 _But you are the least bad of the bunch,_ a tiny voice in his head whispered.

 _Shut up! What do you know? Besides, where were the Ninja when I needed help?_

Drew clutched his head as some more memories started to come back. It wasn't another PTSD attack, but they were still vivid in his mind.

 _Before long we arrived at the ocean. The airship descended, transforming itself. When it hit the water, it was no longer an airship, but a submarine. We traveled through the water for a long while before we finally broke the surface. They took us out of the vehicle and onto the dock of an unfamiliar island. The night was even colder and darker there than at home. I was afraid._

Why should he tell? Especially since...

 _They threatened me, saying that if I told anyone what had happened, they would kill someone close to me._

But then again...the Black Dragons weren't here. They couldn't kill someone if they weren't here to do it. He didn't have to pretend to be anyone he wasn't.

He could be himself.

He could be _free_.

And then he made up his mind.

Drew climbed the stairs to the dorm levels, his head spinning at the possible consequences of what he was about to do. Every footstep seemed to echo in the empty hallway. Time seemed to go by too quickly as he was suddenly in front of the door to Ted's room. He held his breath and knocked.

"Ugh, are you kidding me? Is that you, Mark? You're not seriously going to make me go to a fighting lesson, are you? You know I'm an abysmal fighter!" Ted's voice came from inside. A few seconds later, the door opened to reveal a grumpy-looking Ted. His expression changed however, when he saw who was really at the door. "Drew? Woah, what happened to you? You look like you just got hit by a truck!"

"Ted, I need to talk to you."

"About what?"

"I know it's gonna sound absolutely bogus, but..." Drew paused for a moment. "We're not what we think we are."

Ted's eyebrow went up. "What?"

"Alright, I'll put it plain. Seven years ago, we - the five of us agents - were all kidnapped and stripped of our pasts and identities. And I'm the only one who remembers everything."

* * *

Agent i braced himself for the reaction to his latest report.

 _"HE DID WHAT?!"_ Carson shouted over the earpiece. Agent I had to cup his hand over his ear with the little device in it in order to keep the noise from carrying in the hallway.

"You heard me, Carson. He spilled the beans. Right now he's probably already telling Ted all the details."

 _"Lady Luck has truly frowned on the agency this day!"_ the assistant fretted. _"I can already see it: the entire Black Dragon Agency in ashes, our dreams shattered..."_

Agent I rolled his eyes. He hadn't seen Carson in a long time, but just keeping in contact by communication devices was enough to tell Agent I that the old man had _not_ grown out of his over-dramatic manner.

"Carson, you're forgetting the rest of Operation: Exterminate."

Hundreds of miles away, Carson froze. The boy had not pronounced the mission's name in its code form. It appeared that the clever little boy had figured everything out on his own.

Operation: XT3RM1N8 was known only to Vladomir's inner circle as Operation: Exterminate.

 _"You're too smart, Agent I,"_ he growled.

"Why, thank you. _You're_ too kind, Agent Carson." the double agent answered before hanging up.

* * *

 **(A/N) And there you have it! Just an fyi - I added the element Aloe because I felt like if there was an element of absorbtion, there needed to be an element of healing. I replaced Speed with Time because that makes WAY more sense with the theory of general reletivity. Next chapter the explaining really begins! See you all then!**

 **Thanks to NerdyJD for reviewing! Keep them coming, folks! And thanks again to lovesgod12!**

 **Review!**


	7. Chapter 6: Hacking for Proof

**(A/N) Hello! Now we're finally going to see some back story stuff and answers to many of the questions you may have been asking! Now read!**

* * *

Chapter 6

Hacking for Proof

"Are you done yet?"

Drew was looking over Ted's shoulder as he typed codes into the computer in Ted's room. Ted rolled his eyes and turned the computer chair ninety degrees to look at him irritatedly. "Dude, be patient. Hacking into the most secure system in the world isn't easy." Ted swiveled the chair around and got back to work. They had begun their little "investigation" at three p.m. after Drew had explained himself nine times about the agents not being "real" agents and a ton of other nonsensical claims, and four hours later they were no closer to hacking into the Black Dragon network. Ted tried code after code after code, but nothing had worked. This was turning into a total waste of his time.

"Why don't you just bypass the entire thing and skip trying to log in without a password?" Drew suggested. "Isn't that what you did on our mission to steal the files from Borg Tower?"

"Yes, that is what I did, but if I did that here, the entire network would be under my direct control."

"Cool!"

" _Not_ cool! What that means is that if I hacked this network the same way I did with Ninjago City's network, it wouldn't be so discreet. Not only would I control the network itself, but everything _connected_ to the network would suddenly go haywire, too. _Everyone_ _would_ _know_ that someone was hacking the system. The only reason Ninjago City didn't realize it is because it was night and most of the city was asleep."

"How could they know who was doing the hacking?"

"I'm the only one in the entire agency who could _do_ a thing like that."

"Oh. So, since that's not an option, what can you do?"

Ted racked his brain for a solution to this problem. There had to be some way to get into the system without every Black Dragon agent noticing. He knew close to a thousand different hacks, but as each one presented itself to him, there was always something wrong with it. Too obvious. Too signature. Too complex. Too time-consuming. Too this. Too that. Finally, he ran out of ideas.

"Drew," he said reluctantly, "I'm afraid you may be right. I can't think of any better - or less _insane_ \- way to do this." Ted took a deep breath, and began to enter the hack for complete network takeover.

* * *

Sirens blared in the Black Dragon Headquarters. All the lights in the entire building had turned red, and the giant screen at the front of the enormous room had gone black except for red words appearing on the screen line by line.

Error. Press any key to restart.

Restart failed. Scanning for source of problem.

No source found. Searching for cleaner.

Cleaner found. Shut down for cleaning?

"What the _devil_ is going on in here?!" Vladomir bellowed, racing into the mission control room with Agent Carson following close behind. The spacious room lined with desks and computers that was usually filled with the sound of the tapping of keys on laptops and low murmurs about various aspects of missions was now in chaos: interns were racing around the room, employees were desperately trying to fix problems on their devices, and no one seemed to be trying to get a handle over the situation. The leader's eyes fell on the Head of Mission Control, Agent Dawson. "Dawson, what has happened here? Nothing in my office works! I can't even make a telephone call!" he yelled at the bespectacled man.

"Someone has hacked the system!" Dawson shouted, frantically pointing at the screen.

 _"What?!"_

"Our entire network is out of our control! Someone has hacked it! And our network is completely unique to the world, set up to be invincible by our greatest minds! We have the safest network in the world and it's just been _hacked,_ for Ninjago's sake! HACKED, I TELL YOU!"

Carson stomped his foot on the ground. "I told you this would happen, Vladomir! Team Nightprowler has turned against us! The only person capable of such a powerful hack is Agent Ted! Now what are we going to do?!"

Vladomir stared at the screen with the red words on it. Then he turned to Dawson. "Try to fight fire with fire. I need you to hack back into our system and see if you can regain control."

Dawson typed in a code on his computer. New words appeared on the screen.

HACK BLOCKED.

Vladomir cursed. He should have seen this coming. Now everything was ruined. They were losing.

* * *

"You're in!" Drew exclaimed, grinning. He slapped his friend on the back.

"Yeah. But now everyone knows!"

"Who cares? Lets see what we can find!"

Ted scrolled through the home page until he found a tab labeled "ARCHIVES". "That's what you're looking for," he said, clicking on it. It brought him to a page with a search bar and a button that read, "SEARCH ARCHIVES". Ted turned to Drew. "You'll need to take it from here," he said, getting up. Drew took the chair and swiveled toward the computer. His fingers hovered over the keys for a moment as if hesitating to do something that would change everything, then tapped in five names: Drew, Emma, Lex, Reed, Nick. Then he pressed search. Ted wasn't quite sure where Drew was going with this, so he just kept quiet.

The results popped up, and at the top of the list was a PDF file marked "agent files: Team Nightprowler." Drew clicked on it, then opened the downloads window and selected the newest file.

The file's contents were five profiles. Ted recognized Drew's and Lex's names, but he didn't recognize the others. "I don't get it," he told Drew. "Who are those other three people?"

"Well," Drew began, clicking on the one labeled "Reed." "Let's see if you recognize this one."

Ted gasped as the picture of the agent popped up with the profile. He suddenly felt light-headed. He did recognize the person in the photo.

It was a picture of himself.

Ted felt like something had come back to him, something he never knew had been taken away.

It was a name.

 _Reed._

 _That's my name._

He scrolled down, fueled by this discovery. He had to know more. He began to speed through the profile.

 _Agent Name: Ted, formerly Reed_

 _Age: 12_

 _Gender: male_

 _Specializes in: Technology and Mechanics; interrogation_

 _Background: Birthplace from home at Sensei Lloyd's Academy at age 5. Brainwashed and altered personality and appearance. Trained to be active field agent. Currently technology expert on Team Nightprowler._

He moved on to the other files. His thirst for knowledge would not be quenched until he knew everything these files had to tell him.

 _Agent name: Gretta, formerly Emma_

 _Age: 16_

 _Gender: female_

 _Specializes in: Weapons, both function and construction; interrogation_

 _Background: Birthplace unknown. Taken from Sensei Lloyd's academy at age 9. Brainwashed and altered personality and appearance. Trained to be an active field agent. Currently weapons expert on Team Nightprowler._

 _Agent name: Mark, formerly Nick_

 _Age: 17_

 _Gender: male_

 _Specializes in: Navigation and battle strategies_

 _Background: Born to neglectful parents, ran away to Sensei Lloyd's monastery. Taken from there at age 10. Brainwashed and altered personality and appearance. Trained to be active field agent. Currently leader of Team Nightprowler._

Then he came to Drew and Lex's files.

 _Agent name: Drew_

 _Age: 15_

 _Gender: male_

 _Specializes in: Combat, both theory and practice_

 _Background: Born to ninjas Kai and Skylor in Sensei Lloyd's monastery. Taken from the monastery at age 8. Brainwash and appearance change failed. Currently combat expert on Team Nightprowler. Is currently under close watch to prevent him from telling other teammates about their true identities._

 _Agent name: Lex_

 _Age: 7_

 _Gender: male_

 _Specializes in: Mathematics and Physics_

 _Background: Born in Black Dragon Island's prison to a dying mother. After the mother's death, he was given to Agent Drew to raise. Has selective mutism, will only talk to Agent Drew. Is a mathematical prodigy. Currently code cracker and mathematician on Team Nightprowler._

He couldn't believe it. Everything he'd ever known was a lie. Including himself.

 _Who am I? Ted, or Reed?_

And then the answer broke free in his mind as if it had been there the whole time, imprisoned in the back of his mind.

 _My name is Reed._

"Hey, dude," Drew's voice behind him said.

"Huh?"

"You zoned out there. Are you okay?"

Reed sat staring at the screen with his real name on it. "Everything, all this time, has been a lie, and I never knew," he said in a quiet but firm tone. He swiveled around slowly to look at Drew. The fifteen-year-old had an expression of sorrow on his face. Reed had to ask him. "And you _knew?"_

Drew let out a long sigh before giving his answer. "Yes."

Reed's head was reeling. "Why didn't you tell us? We could have helped you!"

"Because there was nothing we could have done. Think about it, Reed. You're a logical person. If I had told you that we were all living a lie, that we were fighting on the wrong side, what would you have thought? You would have thought I was going crazy, and you wouldn't believe a word of it. To make matters worse, I was threatened."

"What?!"

"If I said anything to anyone about what really happened, the Agency would kill someone close to me. I'll admit it was a hard secret to keep. You know all those times I seemed to stop myself from saying something or refused to finish a sentence? I was about to say something that would result in the secret getting out."

Reed was shocked. He had no idea that something like this was happening to his best friend. "So what's gonna happen now that you've told me and everyone knows about it?"

Drew's amber eyes flashed. "We're gonna show 'em who we really are."

"And how are we supposed to do that when we've just done what they warned us not to do?"

"I have a plan, but we'll have to work fast. Are you up for pulling an all-nighter?"

* * *

The sirens continued to wail as Vladomir stood fuming. He thought he had Nightprowler under control. _Everyone_ thought he had Nightprowler under control. Until now. Now they were ruined. The agency would crumble under his command.

Then he remembered something Carson had told him earlier.

A smile returned to Vladomir's face.

 _It's time._

 **(A/N) Time for what? You'll just have to wait and see...**

 **Thanks again to NerdyJD and lovesgod12!**

 **Review!**


	8. Chapter 7: The Rebel's Secret

**(A/N) IT'S FINALLY TIME FOR THE OTHER AGENTS TO REMEMBER! Will they take it well? Or will the weight of their actions as agents have taken it's toll? Read on to find out!**

* * *

Chapter 7

The Rebel's Secret

"How's it going?" Drew whispered.

Reed poked his head out from behind the project that he had been working on since they had hacked the Black Dragon's network. They had stayed up all night working on a machine that could reverse all damage done to their brains. "Still needs some finishing touches. Now I've got a question for you: do I have to use my own invention on myself?"

"Do you remember living here seven years ago?"

"No."

"Then you have your answer."

Reed sighed. He was about to ask for a socket wrench when he heard the sound of someone coming down the stairs. "Quick!" Drew hissed, and Reed threw a sheet over their machine and dove behind it just before Violet stepped in.

Reed peeped out from behind the sheet to watch. Violet blinked in surprise at Drew. "Wasn't expecting to see you. I thought maybe Ted might have slipped down here to tinker. What are you doing up so early?"

"Oh, you know me, just practicing for Spinjitsu class tomorrow," Drew bragged. Reed's eyebrows went up. This wasn't like Drew. He was never flirtatious. He shook his head in disbelief as he realized what was going on.

Drew had a crush on Violet.

Reed would have groaned, but he kept it in as it would have given them away.

"Uh huh. So then what's with the big thing under the sheet?" Violet asked, pointing out their project with a smirk that clearly stated that she knew he was lying. Quite honestly, it was hard not to notice their project, since it was enormous. Reed and Drew weren't putting much effort into keeping it hidden. They hadn't thought anyone would come down while they were working.

For a split second, a spark of fear went off in Drew's amber eyes. The look quickly disappeared though, and he sighed. "Okay, okay, you got me. It's the robotics project Ted and I are working on for Sensei Zane's class. Right, Ted?"

Reed knew that was a cue for him to come out. He stood up behind the machine and gave a thumbs-up.

"Umm... you won't tell anyone, will you?" Drew asked Violet nervously.

"Nah. Besides, I don't even know what's under there. See you later, you two. Have fun staying awake for class," she added with a hint of sarcasm.

"Bye," the boys answered as she climbed back up the stairs again. Reed noticed that even after she was gone, Drew kept looking at where she had just been. Reed grinned. He decided to have some fun with this...

"Hate to lie to her..." Drew muttered under his breath.

"So you got a girlfriend?" Reed teased.

"W-what!? She's not my girlfriend! We hardly even know each other!"

"But you obviously like her!"

"No I don't!"

"Mm hm. And I'm Santa Claus."

Drew huffed. "Just hurry up and finish that machine. We have to have this done by morning."

* * *

Lex kept working on his current task. Drew had given him a code last night to figure out. It was very complex, having multiple different translations. The only thing that was not written in code was the date it was sent, which was ten years ago. Lex liked challenges though, and it was worth staying up all night to receive the satisfaction of decoding yet another message. So far however, he hadn't figured out what type of code it was. It was composed of letters and numbers, but he couldn't quite figure out-

 _Wait a minute._

There was one sequence of letters and numbers that kept popping up in the message.

 _XT3RM1N8._

And then it clicked.

Lex began scrawling furiously on the wall. It was similar to one of those times when he suddenly saw a connection between his calculations. If his hypothesis was correct...

 _XT3RM1N8._

 _X=EX. 3=E. 1=I. 8=ATE._

 _EX-T-E-R-M-I-N-ATE._

 _EXTERMINATE._

When Lex finished, his heart dropped into his stomach . The crayon fell out of his hand and broke as it hit the floor while Lex stared at his work in shock. He swallowed hard and took a few steps backward, still staring wide-eyed at his solution written on the wall.

* * *

Two hours later, at 4 a.m., Reed popped his head into Mark's room. Mark and Gretta were huddled around Reed's computer speaking in hushed tones.

 _"Do you think that's all of it?"_

 _"Yes, that's everything."_

Reed cleared his throat. Mark slammed the laptop shut and turned around to look at the intruder with a look of one who had just been caught red-handed. "Ted, I'm surprised to see you up so early," he said, putting on a fake smile and trying to hide the computer from view. Gretta just glared at Reed with a look that could kill.

Reed narrowed his eyes at the team leader. "I could say the same thing about you. What are you doing on my computer?" he asked suspiciously.

"Sending a few emails," he answered. "You left it in here last night, so we figured we'd get a few jobs out of the way. We didn't think you'd mind."

"Well, I _do_ mind," Reed snapped. "And I'll have you know that that was one of the worst attempts at a lie that I've ever heard."

"What do you mean?"

Even though Reed hadn't had his memory restored yet, he'd noticed that ever since he'd read the files last night, he'd felt different. He'd been more aware of changes in people's stories, their habits, their flaws. He'd been thinking faster, clearer, and more thoroughly than he ever had before. It was almost like a computer upgrade; in one click, the entire system was better than it used to be. And this new system allowed him to pick apart every word Mark had just said.

"The last time I used my computer was in my room, looking something up with Drew," he began. "I left it on my desk. The only way you could have gotten your hands on it is if you and Gretta stole it. _Which_ means," Reed's voice rose momentarily to stop Mark, who looked like he was about to protest. "Which means you shouldn't be surprised to see me up, because I was already gone by the time you snuck in. That _also_ means that since everything else you had just told me was a lie, it is extremely likely that you were _not_ , in fact, just sending a few emails. So, now that I've officially shredded apart your alibi, why don't you tell me what you were _really_ doing on my computer?"

Mark stood up from the chair, his eyes flashing in anger. "What happened to you? Suddenly you're _bolder_ than before."

"To tell you the truth, I'm not quite sure. Something about an incident that happened seven years ago."

"You're not making sense."

"Actually, I'm making more sense than I ever have for quite a while."

"Don't get smart with me. You'll regret it."

Suddenly Gretta smiled. "Threats! This just got interesting," she remarked, no longer bored with the situation. Reed ignored her. He watched Mark's face. He could almost see the gears in his head turning. And suddenly, it clicked.

 _"Drew,"_ he growled.

Reed smiled. "You finally put it together, huh?"

 _"You're both rogues!"_

"I guess you could say that."

Mark charged, and Gretta followed. Reed bolted; his work was done. They had taken the bait. Now he just needed to lead them into the garage.

* * *

Drew heard the pounding of feet coming down the stairs just as he finished concealing the machine behind some loose machine parts and boxes. He darted into the shadows just as the three arrived in the garage. Reed backed into the spot against the wall that Drew had showed him earlier. He made his best impression of being cornered as Gretta and Mark closed in on him.

"Game's over, Ted," Gretta sneered, setting her gun to stun mode. "You've gotten yourself into a heap of trouble. Say goodbye to your name being under Team Nightprowler."

"You can _all_ say goodbye to your names," Drew said suddenly, firing up the memory-restorer. Mark and Gretta turned around to see the giant machine humming to life, pointed straight at them. "Here comes your _wake-up_ call." Taken completely by surprise, they didn't even have the chance to react. The light from the beam hit them, blinding them before everything went black.

* * *

 _I remember it well. It was a cold, late autumn night. The sky was covered with clouds so that not one star shone. Even the moonlight was blotted out. The wind howled eerily outside the monastery._

 _My father was just putting me to bed. "Goodnight, Drew. Sleep well," he told me. Then someone screamed downstairs. Everyone, teachers and students, ran toward the cry. When we reached the front hall, we were terrified at the scene before us. The Black Dragons were invading._

 _The teachers told us kids to run and hide while they held the intruders back. We ran upstairs, but we were cut off on the fourth floor by more Black Dragon agents._

 _They lined us up and inspected each and every one of us, looking from us to a tablet device and then back before moving on. Suddenly, an agent pulled out of the line one six-year-old student, Reed, and handed him over to another agent who led him toward a window and jumped out with him. A nine-year-old, Emma, Reed's sister, screamed and broke out of the line. An agent shot a tranquilizing dart at her. She fell to the floor. He looked at his screen, and handed her over to be taken away, too. After that, no one dared break out of line. They ended up also taking a ten-year-old, Nick, and finally, me._

 _We were led to a black airship outside the monastery. Before they could take us in, however, there was a yell, and Heather, Sensei Lloyd's wife, was suddenly there, fighting. Only a few seconds in, however, she suddenly and unexpectedly collapsed to the ground. The agents threw us and her into the back of the airship and took off. That was the last I saw of our home for years._

 _Before long we arrived at the ocean. The airship descended, transforming itself. When it hit the water, it was no longer an airship, but a submarine. We traveled through the water for a long while before we finally broke the surface. They took us out of the vehicle and onto the dock of an unfamiliar island. The night was even colder and darker there than at home. I was afraid._

 _They led us down a path through a dark, misty jungle until we came to a large building: the Black Dragon Headquarters. Inside, they separated us kids from Heather, and we were taken down a long hallway to a large laboratory full of giant machines. They lined us up, and one by one they put us through a memory-altering machine. First they took Reed, then Nick, then Emma, and finally me._

 _I was strapped to a chair. They adjusted the angle of the laser. When they pressed the button, I felt a sharp pain in my forehead, but it passed after only a few seconds. I was a bit dazed, but after a moment I realized that it hadn't worked; I remembered everything. The doctors figured that since I was a descendent of Amber, a very powerful element, the brainwash had been blocked. They threatened me, saying that if I told anyone what had happened, they would kill someone close to me._

 _My name is Drew. I am fifteen years old now. For seven years I have been forced to live a life of crime, lying about who I really am. Now the truth can finally be told. Now you finally know my secret._

 _Wake up._

* * *

She had a name.

What was it?

She searched her brain. To her surprise, it felt like she hadn't _used_ it for years. Her thought process was clumsy, and felt like a journey through a swamp on foot. And then, out of the cloudy void, it came to her.

 _Emma._

She also knew that she was looking for someone she had lost. Who was it?

 _Reed._

"Reed!" she shouted.

And to her astonishment and relief, a groggy answer came. "Calm down, sis, I'm right here!"

Emma opened her eyes and slowly sat up to see her little brother doing the same. They looked at each other for a minute, then they were hugging and crying and nothing mattered anymore because they remembered each other and they were back together after those evil people had separated them...

"I always love a happy ending!"

They looked up to see Drew hopping out from behind the memory-restorer, a huge grin on his face. "I've been waiting for this day for seven years. I think this deserves a celebration."

"Celebration? Why would we celebrate after what we just did?"

Everyone turned to see their old team leader staring at the floor with an expression of - what was it? Anger? Guilt? Fear? A combination? It was hard to read.

"What do you mean, why would we-" Reed stopped as the agent known as Mark slowly stood up and turned toward his team. When he did so, it became clear that they were not looking at agent Mark. This person seemed more grown up and more militaristic than Mark ever had been. He looked at them with dark eyes that told them that he felt no relief at his memory's awakening. No, this person was not Mark. This person was Nick.

Nick's glare settled on Emma. "The email. The one we were working on when Reed interrupted us." Emma's expression turned from confusion, to realization, to horror.

"Nick, what have we done?!" she cried. She buried her face into her hands.

Reed looked bewildered. "I'm confused. What _have_ you done?"

Nick turned to his teammate. "Right before you walked in to see us on the computer, we had just sent an email containing a file with all of our surveillance, observations, pictures, voice recordings, everything we accumulated over the course of our stay."

Drew stood up, panic in his eyes. "Nick. Who did you send it to? _Who did you send the email to?!"_ he pressed.

"To the a-a-agency!" Emma bawled. There was silence as the statement sunk in. Emma could almost feel the energy and enthusiasm from finally awakening their memories drain from the room.

Drew took a deep breath. He was clearly trying to keep his frustration level down. "What are the consequences?" he asked in a low tone.

"We don't know," Nick responded gravely.

There was another silence until Reed suddenly stated, "Well, it looks like we're about to find out." He pointed at the stairs. Peeking from behind the railing was Lex, hugging his composition notebook and observing the scene with his wide, hazel eyes. As the youngest team member crossed the garage towards his troop, Reed began to explain.

"Last night, while Drew and I worked on the machine, we had given Lex the task of deciphering a coded message we'd found in the archives on the Black Dragon network regarding our mission. It had been sent from an agent to Vladomir, and the sequence XT3RM1N8 kept popping up in it. We wanted to know what it meant." Lex opened his notebook to a certain page and handed it to Drew, who then proceeded to read it to the group. It was a bit hard to do, since Lex had messy handwriting and only ever wrote in all capital letters.

 _"'SIR,_

 _MY INTELLIGENCE HAS CONFIRMED THAT THE NINJA HAVE ORGANIZED THEMSELVES INTO AN EDUCATING FORCE WITH THE PURPOSE OF PASSING ON KNOWLEDGE TO A NEW GENERATION OF NINJA. NATURALLY, THIS SITUATION MUST BE DEALT WITH AS QUICKLY AND EFFICIENTLY AS POSSIBLE._

 _WE AT THE DEPARTMENT OF MISSION PLANNING HAVE THEREFORE WORKED OUR HARDEST TO CREATE A PLAN OF ACTION THAT WILL CREATE AS MUCH DAMAGE TO THE NINJA AS POSSIBLE. WE ARE PROPOSING OPERATION: XT3RM1N8, OR OPERATION: EXTERMINATE, WHICH INVOLVES AN UNDERCOVER MISSION TO INFILTERATE THE MONESTERY AND SEND BACK TO HEADQUARTERS ALL INFORMATION GATHERED THERE. THEN WE MUST USE THE THE INFORMATION TO FORM A PLAN TO DESTROY THE PLACE AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE, ALONG WITH ALL ITS RESIDENTS. AFTER THIS OBSTACLE HAS BEEN DISPOSED OF, THE PATH TO BLACK DRAGON TAKEOVER WILL BE SMOOTHE SAILING._

 _I TRUST YOU WILL BE ABLE TO FIND THE RIGHT AGENTS FOR THIS MOST CRUCIAL MOMENT IN OUR HISTORY._

 _SINCERELY,_

 _AGENT I'"_

When Drew finished, there was silence as the gravity of the situation sunk in.

"So that's what they're gonna do," said Reed quietly. "They're gonna kill us all."

There was another long silence until Nick suddenly said in that determined tone of voice that only the bravest of leaders seem to possess, "No they're not."

Everyone looked at him with sad eyes, believing he was once again following a cause before he thought it through. However, Nick's face didn't seem to suggest that. In fact, he looked like he knew exactly where he was going. He looked at his four teammates with that face he often gave them when they were slacking during missions. It was his game-plan face.

"Agents! Pull yourselves together!" He had turned back into the good old drill sargent he used to be. "Attention!" The team shot up and formed the old soldier line. Nick slowly paced back and forth in front of them, eyeing them with the disciplined and experienced stare he had acquired over the past seven years. "I know things seem pretty grim right now but I can guarantee you four that I will do everything in my power to make sure this does not happen and I expect ALL of you to do the same. CLEAR?!"

"YES SIR!"

"I know as well as you all that this plan has probably been in the making for longer than we would all like to imagine. Maybe this was why we were all taken in the first place: to carry out this very mission. But does it matter now?"

"NO SIR!"

"That's right! Because that's in the past and there's no use whining and crying like babies about it. What we need to worry about is the Black Dragons' plan to blow this place to smithereens! We all know that this is our fault so we have to be the ones to fix it! UNDERSTOOD?!"

"YES SIR!"

"We all have our different talents and I plan on using mine to help the right side in this fight! How about you all? Will you take a stand, or let the Black Dragons destroy this place?"

"TAKE A STAND!"

"Okay then! Let's do this thing!"

* * *

 **(A/N) Now were finally coming close to the climax of the story! But how will the Ninja react to all this? You'll see in the next chapter!**

 **Thanks again to NerdyJD and lovesgod12!**

 **Review!**


	9. Chapter 8: Seven Years Ago

**(A/N) Well, it looks like part 1 of my fic is drawing to a close (for the second time)! This is the last chapter until the conclusion! Nerdy JD, you and probably a whole bunch of other people noticed the connection between Drew and Kai that I keep hinting at. Well, it's finally going to be made explicit in this chapter! Time for the original Ninja to finally find out the secret!**

 **EDIT: There has been a VERY slight change in dialogue in this chapter.**

* * *

Chapter 8

Seven Years Ago

"That's ridiculous," Jay scoffed.

The teachers were all gathered in the Element Room, discussing the events of the recent Initiation ceremony. Jay didn't see _any_ sense in what had happened. "A stone platform doesn't just _split_ under the weight of a kid that small! And the last time I saw him, Lex was _nowhere near needing an extra-large gi!"_

"Jay is correct," Zane added. "We gave him the smallest gi we had, and even then it was approximately 2.52 sizes too large for him. It is not physically possible for the weight of a child that small to break the platform's rock."

"I know what I saw," Skylor said firmly. "The platform split into the two halves of yin and yang. There was no mistaking it."

"But why would it do that?" Cole asked. "The platform is made out of an extremely strong rock. It only breaks under extreme pressure."

"So it obviously has something to do with whatever power Lex has." Nya concluded. "But I can't think of an element that can do that."

"Because there isn't one!" Kai shouted. "No element has the power to do that!"

Lloyd coughed. "Energy can do that."

"Yeah, but Energy is a power exclusively passed on through the line of the First Spinjitzu Master! And you've only got one kid!"

"I vote we put this matter on hold," Cole said, sensing the frustration around the room. The last thing they needed right now was an argument. "Nya, you said something during our last meeting, but we didn't really get around to talking about what it could have meant."

"Yes," Nya sighed in relief, finally able to express her concerns about the events of a few weeks ago. "I was in the Temple of Souls Passed when all of a sudden all the candles went out and the statue of the First Spinjitzu Master started speaking to me. I already told you everything it said last meeting."

"The subject is open for discussion," said Lloyd.

"It doesn't make sense," Kai said right away. "A statue doesn't just start talking."

"Kai! Stop being so stubborn! It spoke to me!" Nya scolded her brother.

"How about we ask ourselves what it could have meant rather than if it said anything at all," Zane suggested.

"I don't know about you all, but it seems pretty strange that it happened on the night of the day the new kids arrived." Jay put in. "That seems suspicious to me."

"Jay, you're only making that connection because you don't like Mark," Nya pointed out quickly. She knew her husband too well to not see the true cause of his comment.

"HE'S JUST TOO SERIOUS!" Jay ranted. "All he does is scowl all the time!"

"Jay does have a point though," Zane considered. "The timing seems too close to be irrelevant."

"So you think the people that the First Spinjitzu Master was referring to could be the new students?" Skylor asked.

"It is a possibility," Lloyd mused.

"Dad?"

Lloyd turned toward the door. His daughter was peeking in. "Violet, sweetheart, what are you doing?! You're supposed to be in bed! It's four-thirty in the morning!"

"You might want to hear us out," she advised, her eyes seeming to dart to something else behind the door.

"Wait, what do you mean 'us'? Who's with you?"

Violet opened the doors all the way to reveal five people. All of the teachers stared. Accompanying her were none other than the five students they had just been discussing.

"Were you talking about us?" Drew asked, narrowing his eyes.

Lloyd ignored Drew and turned to his daughter with a disapproving frown. "Violet, could you explain why you _and_ five other students are up at this hour?"

"I can explain," Drew stepped forward before Violet could say anything. "I'm assuming you all remember a certain event that happened seven years ago? A kidnapping, perhaps?"

* * *

Violet watched as the confusion amongst the teachers turned into shock. Before they had come to tell the adults, Drew had told her the truth. At first, she had been dubious, but Drew eventually managed to convince her. Kai was the first to speak.

"How do you know about that?" he burst. Violet knew that her father and his friends, _especially_ Kai, had worked hard to put the kidnappings behind them. It would take irrefutable proof to sway the fire wielder into believing what Drew had to say.

"Because... I was one of them," he announced.

"Oh really? Which one?"

Violet held her breath. This was when Drew would drop the bomb.

"Your son," he answered.

The room became so silent at that moment that one could hear a pin drop. All eyes turned to Kai. At first, he was stunned. Then, his face contorted with anger. "My son is dead," Kai insisted through his teeth. "I learned to accept that a long time ago. Don't get my hopes up! It's only a coincidence you have the same name!"

Drew looked at Violet. After he had told her about his past, Violet had insisted that they prepare for this exact scenario, because she knew it was bound to happen. She had remarked that although it was not obvious at first, Drew had inherited his father's facial features. The reason it was not easy to notice was because of his hair. Drew's brick-red hair grew in all directions and was in no particular style. However, Violet had a hunch that she could fix that.

"Purple ninja to the rescue!" she said with a confident smile. She whipped out a comb and a bottle of hair gel she had swiped from Kai's bathroom. Skylor had once told her that her husband used way more gel than he actually needed to get his signature spikes, so he kept a huge stock of them under the sink. Drew had expressed his concerns that sneaking around and stealing something from a bathroom that belonged to someone that you were not related to was a bit creepy, but Violet answered by simply saying, " _You're_ related to him."

"Hey! Where'd you get that?!" Kai yelled, recognizing the bottle. Ignoring him, Violet dragged Drew out of the room. About a minute passed, and then she reappeared in the doorway, grinning. "Friends," she announced, "I present to you proof that Drew is _not_ lying." With that, she pulled Drew into view.

He looked a little pained, because it had taken a bit of work and experimentation (involving much hair pulling) for Violet to get Drew's hair in the right place, but as it turned out, it had all been worth it. Drew's hair was now spiked in almost the _exact_ same way as Kai's was. Now the resemblance was unmistakable. Not only was it now much more obvious that Drew had his father's face, it was also easy to see Skylor's traits in him, too. He had his mother's brick red hair and bright amber eyes.

Skylor was the first to react. She ran at Drew and pulled him into a tight hug while weeping with joy. Kai was more cautious in his approach. He walked slowly toward his son, his boy whom he had been sure was dead and was never coming back to him. He bent down looked carefully into Drew's eyes. It was as if he was looking at rings of amber melted by fire.

Fire and Amber. Kai's and Skylor's elements. There was no denying it now. This was really the Drew he had lost seven years ago.

"It's good to be back, Dad," Drew said with a smirk not unlike Kai's. The ninja of Fire joined the hug, and the three were finally a family again.

"Don't you _ever_ leave us like that _again!"_ Skylor cried.

"Uh, Mom? I was kidnapped. I didn't leave you on purpose."

"Yeah, this is cute and all, but can we _please get to the more pressing matter here?"_ Reed suddenly blurted, ruining the moment.

"Right," Drew sighed, breaking out of the hug. "Get comfortable, everyone, because you're in for a long story."

* * *

"...And that's how we all got here."

After the agents finished filling the Ninja in on the story of their kidnapping, it's aftermath, and the current danger, each putting in their bit of the tale, the former heroes of Ninjago were in a state of shock.

"So they're going to blow up this place..." Nya said quietly. "What now?"

"We get the hell outta here, that's what!" Nick answered in his usual uncensored language. Lloyd glared at him.

"Ninja don't just give up like that!" Jay argued.

"You don't know the Black Dragons like we do," Drew said in a tone that dripped with hatred for the organization he spoke of. "Hold back? That's for cowards. Go easy on your enemy? Wouldn't even dream of it. Retreat? Never heard of it."

"As a weapons expert, I constantly visited the weapons development complex on Black Dragon Island," Emma piped in. "Trust me when I say that they have weapons that are perfectly capable of blowing this place to smithereens in one shot."

"But we can't just quit!" Kai fumed.

"We're not quitting, Dad," Drew said. "We have to escape to someplace we can use to prepare ourselves for coming back. We just need time. Right now, the Black Dragons are planning a direct assault on this place. We're gonna be facing an army of tanks in another few hours!"

"Wait, how do you know it'll be a few _hours_?" Jay screeched.

"Long story short, Drew and I hacked into the Black Dragon's network, the whole agency knows about it, and now they're most likely deciding to start the attack earlier than they originally planned," Reed told his fellow lightning wielder.

"Dad, what do you think?" Violet asked her father. Everyone turned to the green ninja.

"I certainly don't like the aspect of giving up," he began, "but if it means saving hundreds of lives, then I'm afraid we have no choice."

"But where would we go?" Nya asked fretfully.

"I'm running all possible hiding places through my database," Zane informed. "Since there is a 92% chance the Black Dragons will take over Ninjago no matter what we try to do, that means the only place they won't be able to find us is on Chen's Island. It's not marked on any map."

"Actually," Skylor mused, "that's not a bad idea at all. It could serve our purposes for an academy even better than this place does. All the arenas would just need a bit of remodeling and they would be perfect for practice and training. It could easily be turned into a fully functioning ninja academy."

"Then it's settled," Lloyd announced. "We must all pack as much as we can and leave. No one can be left behind."

Unfortunately, the Ninja didn't notice the small listening device tucked away in the corner of the room...

* * *

 _"...We must all pack as much as we can and leave. No one can be left behind."_

In another room, Agent I listened intently to the conversation coming through his earpiece. He was impressed. Drew was much more unpredictable than he'd previously thought. Should he tell the Agency that the Ninja were escaping?

No, not yet, he decided. That would complicate - _certain_ \- desired outcomes. After all, rule number one of being a double agent was to never reveal everything to anyone - not even your closest allies.

Agent I smiled. _I'm going to win this little game..._ he thought.

* * *

Later that day, just after nightfall, the lights were left on in the now abandoned academy. Everyone had already gotten onto Chen's old fleet of paddleboats. That is, everyone but five certain now-rogue agents.

Drew, Reed, Nick, Emma, and Lex had stayed behind to get some unfinished business over with. They watched from the edge of the forest as an army of weapons crawled across the meadow towards the monastery. They had fallen for it. The lights inside had fooled them into thinking there were still people inside. The tanks stopped.

"Sis! Now!" Reed hissed to Emma.

"No. Not yet," she whispered back.

"What are you waiting for?"

"The right moment."

There were mostly tanks in the incoming assault, but there were also some agents carrying an assortment of dangerous-looking explosives and guns. Reed spotted Vladomir's tank leading the charge.

"How do we know he's in there? What if he stayed behind?" Reed asked nervously.

"We don't know for sure," Nick admitted. "We'll just have to hope that he is."

A general ordered to prepare to fire. There was a deafening silence, then huge blasts came from the tanks as missiles flew across the field toward the place the agents once called home.

 _BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!_

One after another, the missiles exploded upon impact with the building. Fire began to consume the place. Lex clung to Drew and sniffled a bit. There were cheers from the army of agents in the grassy field. Emma knew she needed to act now. Now they were vulnerable in their celebration.

"Alright, boys, it's time," she whispered. Drew took out a box of matches. Nick fished some vaseline and a cotton ball out of his pocket. Reed took out a pair of nightgoggles. Lex opened up a notebook, flipped to a certain page, and copied some math equations and a carefully measured angle on a tree. Finally, Emma took out one of her arrows. She rubbed the cottonball in the vaseline and fixed it to the arrowhead. She put on the night goggles and lowered the arrow behind the bushes. Drew struck a match and ignited the cottonball in the shelter of the leaves, so that the flame would not be seen.

"This is it. You've got one shot, sis," Reed reminded his sibling.

"I know that! You don't have to tell me," she hissed. She took aim with her bow and arrow, careful to match the angle on the tree. She paused for a moment, then fired.

The arrow flew up into the sky, reached it's peak, then began its decent. Only when it was too close to avoid did the agents notice the projectile. There were a couple of people refilling the fuel tank of Vladomir's tank. When they saw the arrow coming straight for them, they jumped out of the way. The arrow plunged straight into its target: the open gas tank. Almost immediately, the flammable gasoline inside exploded the tank. Team Nightprowler's mission was accomplished. They had taken out the leader. Now the Black Dragons would be in chaos without him. The five rogues ran from their hiding spot before the Black Dragons could figure out where the arrow came from.

They ran for the docks, following the path laid out by Reed's GPS. "Kinda weird, isn't it?" the technology expert asked his friends.

"What's weird?" asked Drew.

"We just committed an act of revenge."

"Yeah?"

"We aren't supposed to do that as ninja."

"Well, then, let's make sure it'll be our last. We aren't agents anymore," Nick announced.

It took some time, but they finally reached the docks outside of the city. The fog covered them as they crept toward the ship that stood waiting for their arrival. The rest of Chen's fleet had already left, but Lloyd had arranged for his ship to wait for the former agents. The team boarded the boat before collapsing on the floor from exhaustion. As soon as they were all on board, they set sail.

When the agents had recovered, they found Sensei Lloyd below deck.

"You made it," he remarked with a smile.

"Yeah," Drew panted, still a little short of breath.

"Drew, may I speak with you alone? I have some questions," the Sensei asked.

"Uh, sure," Drew agreed, slightly surprised. What did he want to know now? He'd already revealed his secrets.

 _Except for one,_ a small voice in his head reminded him.

After Reed, Emma, Nick, and Lex had left, Lloyd sat down on the floor, and Drew followed suit. It seemed just like the time Drew was in Lloyd's office a few weeks ago.

"Drew," the teacher began, "I feel something is still bothering you. Have you told us everything?"

Drew sighed. "No," he admitted.

"Would you like to tell me?"

Drew took a deep breath, and began to recount what he hadn't told his teacher.

"The Black Dragons didn't kill Heather. Here's what really happened..."

* * *

 **(A/N) What happened? You'll find out in the conclusion to this fic!**

 **The biggest changes to this chapter were all in the scene with the Ninja council and what I like to call "the family scene". I decided that although it didn't quite fit with the overall tone of the fic, there just had to be a cute family scene near the end and that was the reunion of Drew with his parents. It serves as a bit of a breather before the conclusion, which now has** _ **doubled**_ **in size due to big time expansion and a new ending. Also, I decided not to change the appearances of the agents because it was not noted in chapter 7 and not changing it would show that although the damage to their memories was undone, their appearances could not be switched back to what they used to be. It kind of highlights the fact that although they remember themselves, there can be no going back and the Agency has left its mark on them.**

 **And you all finally got a scene with all the original Ninja!**

 **Thanks to NerdyJD, lovesgod12, and AwesomeAuthor13!**

 **Aaaaand I spent much of last night binge-watching all the Ninjago season 6 episodes available on YouTube. I won't spoil anything, but I was screaming internally. I'm way too old for a show about Lego ninjas, but I don't really care. :P**

 **Review!**


	10. Conclusion

**(A/N) FIRST: Even if you've already read the last chapter, read it again, because there has been a minor edit in dialogue.**

 **SECOND: I'm going to tell you now that this chapter does NOT end the same way it did in the first version! It has DOUBLED in size due to the new ending! Okay now, enjoy!**

* * *

Conclusion

The Neverender Ends

 _It didn't take too long for the scientists working on me to figure out that I still remembered my past. They threw me into a cell. I was in there for hours until finally they let me out, saying they had a job for me. They took me to a room on an upper floor: the room that they had put Heather in. They told me I was to take care of her, then they locked the door. When I asked Heather why I had to do this task, she replied that she was going to have a baby. I was scared, because I had no idea how to deal with this situation. But I was stuck with it._

 _I did what I could, but I was mostly in the dark because I was only an eight-year-old. It only got worse when Heather fell ill shortly before she was due. She was taken away to the medical sector, and I was all alone. A week later, she came back with a baby boy in her arms, but she looked weaker than ever. She was dying. Days passed, and she got worse and worse. A week after she had returned, she asked me to come close. She told me she was going to die very soon, and that there was something I needed to know before that happened._

 _She told me that I had to take care of her son. That even though I was young, I was the only one who could do it. She told me to raise him in the way of the Ninja. To teach him right from wrong._

 _"And," she whispered, "make sure he meets his father one day."_

 _That was her last wish before she died with baby Lex in her arms._

 _I thought I could not fulfill it. How could I? I was a kid in a sinister agency that would never let me go anywhere they didn't tell me to go. But I kept the promise to raise him to be a good person. I couldn't let the Black Dragons teach him to be another one of them._

* * *

"As he grew older, it became apparent that he wasn't a normal child. On the upside, he was brilliant. On the downside, he was selectively mute. To this day, Lex still only talks to me."

Sensei Lloyd was silent. He was slowly coming to the shocking conclusion. If his wife, Heather, had been pregnant with Lex, then that meant...

"Lex is my _son?"_ Lloyd breathed.

"Haven't you noticed? Lex's blonde hair is starting to curl like yours. I was trying to brush his hair straight the other day and it just kept curling back up again."

"This also explains what happened to the platform," the teacher thought out loud. "Only Energy can cause something like that to break." He paused for a moment. "May I... see him?"

Drew got up and left to find Lex. He found him doing exactly what Drew had predicted: writing math all over the walls. "Hey little buddy," he greeted.

"Hello, Drew." Lex would only talk to him when they were alone. The boy had a soft, smooth voice that radiated childhood innocence.

"Sensei wants to see you," Drew informed him.

Lex stiffened. His hand stopped writing. "Now?" he asked, his voice anxious. He hated social interaction. It was part of his selective mutism.

"I'll be there with you," Drew told him, hoping the boy would consent.

Lex dropped the marker and followed Drew out. When they arrived below deck, Lloyd looked at the young boy like he had never seen him before. Indeed, it was the first time he was seeing the kid knowing that he was looking at one of his own.

There was silence as father approached son for the first time. The teacher lowered himself to be at eye level with Lex.

"Now I remember," he said, trying to choke back tears, "Heather and I had agreed if Violet turned out to be a boy, we would name him Lex."

Surprising both Drew and Lloyd, the seven-year-old suddenly stepped forward and clung to his father in a long-awaited hug. Lloyd returned the gesture, unable to hold back the tears in his eyes.

 _Well, it looks like I've finally done what I promised to do!_ Drew thought happily. He was finally free. He decided to celebrate his freedom with the rest of the team. Knowing them, they probably already were. He climbed the stairs to the second floor of the boat. When he got to the top, his suspicions were confirmed. The former agents were partying with soda of all kind in every flavor.

"Drew! C'mon! Join the party!" Reed called to his friend, confirming his suspicions. Drew walked over with a smirk resembling his father's and took the bottle of root beer Emma gave him.

"To rogue agents!" he toasted.

"To rogue agents!" the others echoed. They drank the sugary liquid, celebrating this one victory before they would have to return to the serious life. But this time, they would be living it because they wanted to, not because they had to.

 _It's good to be back home,_ Drew thought with a smile.

They had no idea what was going on in the land they had just left...

* * *

All was relatively quiet in the city of Stixx. Ronin was putting away some more stolen goods when there was suddenly a blast from down the docks. He poked his head out the window.

"What the heck?"

People in black uniforms were flooding the town. As soon as Ronin saw that they were carrying guns, he ran into the secret bunker where he always kept Rex. He heard pounding footsteps above him and voices shouting to come out wherever he was hiding. But they'd never find him, he was sure of that. And besides, the ninja would come and take care of this.

Wouldn't they?

* * *

The people of Jamonikai Village had been enjoying a period of peace lately. The shopkeepers were all closing up their stores when suddenly through the gates came what appeared to be a group of people dressed all in black. They were carrying something...

Weapons.

The people ran for their homes, but the doors were broken down by the intruders. The people were gathered into the town square of the village. One of the people in the uniforms stepped onto the ledge of the fountain.

"Ninjago's democracy falls today," he shouted for all to hear. "You are now under the rule of the Black Dragons. You will remain perfectly safe, as long as you follow our every rule. Fail to abide by our laws, and you will suffer _severe_ consequences, no matter how small the crime. First rule: There is a new curfew. You will stay in your homes until 6:00 a.m. and will return to them by 6:00 p.m. Second rule: communication is under close watch. Any suspicious phone calls, mail, emails, or any other type of message will be investigated and could result in arrest. Third rule..."

Surely the Ninja would put a stop to this!

* * *

Villages, towns, and cities fell one by one to the Black Dragon conquering force. Before long they reached Ninjago City. A team of agents marched in the doors of Borg Tower.

After Cyrus Borg had retired from his job as head of his company, he had moved on to politics and had worked his way up to the head of the country. But as he looked out his office window at the chaos ensuing below, he couldn't help but worry that this might be the end of his career. Hundreds of agents flooded the streets, forcing people out of buildings and onto the streets. Helicopters flew through the air with searchlights, looking for anyone trying to escape. Screams and shouts filled the night air.

 _Can this get any worse?_ he thought grimly.

He just had to jinx it.

As if on cue, the door to the elevator opened, revealing two men in the same all-black uniform as the army of criminals below, and another man in a black suit and tie. He had wispy grey hair, a medium skin tone, sharp facial features and grey eyes that seemed to stare into Borg's soul.

"Hello, Mr. Borg," he greeted cheerfully, despite the terror presently going on outside. "I'm afraid my name is classified information, but that is besides the point. I am here to tell you that you are now under Black Dragon rule."

"I demand you leave this office and take your army out of this city at once!" Borg commanded, acting braver than he really was right now. "If you fail to do this, I will be forced to call the Ninja!"

The old man before him laughed. _This can't be good,_ Borg thought nervously.

"Oh, Mr. Borg. That won't be happening. You see, the Ninja are extinct."

"WHAT?!"

"Yes. Their monastery and everyone in it was destroyed two hours ago."

"No..."

"Yes, Mr. Borg. I'm afraid there is no hope of resistance to our new rule. Now we normally don't do this, but we are giving you the luxury of a choice."

"A...choice?"

"Yes. Door number one is you can keep your office, but you will be under the supreme leader of our organization."

"You mean I'll be your _pawn?"_

"That's quite an _informal_ way to put it, now isn't it? Door number two is you will be removed from office, put in prison, and the people of Ninjago will be forced to suffer for _your_ mistake. If you're _lucky_. You could have a worse fate. I won't say what that fate is, because I don't think you want to know."

Borg gulped. He could either submit to the new regime and remain safe, or he could refuse, causing him along with everyone else to be at the mercy of the Black Dragons. He hung his head. What could he do? He wanted to do the right thing and refuse to be a pawn of these horrible people, but if he did...

Ninjago would fall.

"I...I accept," he managed to croak out.

The man in the suit smiled. "Excellent. I don't believe you'll regret your decision, Mr. Borg. Just sign right here and we'll be done." With a shaking hand, Borg signed the paper and handed it back to the man. With that, the three agents left the office, leaving Borg to wallow in his shame.

* * *

On the roof of the paddleboat, Agent I checked his phone for any messages. He'd been waiting for the agency to contact him for at least an hour. When it finally beeped, he opened up the message and smiled.

 _Thanks for warning me about the ambush. We've finally taken over the country now._

 _-Vladomir_

Agent I began to type his response.

 _No problem. Should I continue my mission as before?_

 _-Agent I_

When the response came in, the smile turned into a devilish grin.

 _Yes. And make sure you give regular reports. Hail to the Dragon._

 _-Vladomir_

This was _exactly_ what Agent I wanted. He knew he had to keep Vladomir alive in order for the plan to work. That was key. He also knew that in order to put phase two of his plan into action, he'd need to keep following the Ninja. They were critical pieces in his giant game of chess. It was still early in the game, yes, too early to make any big moves yet. Taking out the king was very far into the future. For now, though, Agent I would keep moving his little pawns across the board, slowly inching his way toward victory.

* * *

Lloyd broke out of his hug with Lex. He stood up slowly, leaning on his staff for support. He had felt a great disturbance in the balance, like all of Ninjago had...

 _fallen._

Lloyd swallowed hard. He looked down at his son, who in turn looked up at him with wide eyes. Had he felt it too?

"Lex," he choked, "I'm afraid we can't do anything. Not now. One day, maybe. But not today."

When that day would come, though, was once again up to destiny.

* * *

 **(A/N) Yes. Now we transition to the slightly darker part 2. A confusing maze with twists and turns, ups and downs, with no idea of where the exit is.**

 **Sorry about that part with Borg giving in. He just seems like that type of guy who has trouble figuring out what the right path to take is when under threat. Take the digital overlord for example. We never saw Borg give in to him, but we can imagine that he did so to protect his position. I like to think that he's not necessarily selfish, he has good intentions, but he panics when he's put into a situation that seems to have only one way out, and as a result makes bad decisions that he later regrets.**

 **Since this is the last chapter in Part 1, I'm going to thank everyone who has supported me during both the first and second versions! Thanks to** **ninjagirl99204, JudithArt, woodswolf, GarmadonJr, Trinitymistressofhealing, BlackNBlue39, Arima Lucari, Princess Bunny, iluvninjagoTNSBFWgirl, and the M.C. Cake Reviewer (yes, I'm still calling you that :D)for supporting version 1! And thanks to** **NerdyJD, lovesgod12, and AwesomeAuthor13 for supporting this one!**

 **One last thing: I am still accepting OCs. If you want one of your OCs in the story, give me a name, basic description of appearance, a Meyers-Briggs personality type (if not applicable, just give me a personality with strengths and weaknesses), their element, weapon, and color if they have them, their age, and a past event or two. I really like to know my characters before I start.**

 **Well, I guess that's all, so goodbye and see you later! I have a few prequels planned, so stay tuned!**


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